Cyclone Gabrielle: Families here and overseas desperately waiting to hear from Hawke’s Bay and Gisborne-based loved ones

If you have been unable to contact a friend or family member - or if you have fled the storm and want others to know you are safe - you can post a message here on the NZ Herald’s community noticeboard.

Families right across New Zealand and overseas are still desperately trying to track down missing loved ones in Hawke’s Bay and Gisborne after Cyclone Gabrielle caused devastation and destruction in the regions.

There are 1442 people listed as uncontactable. While Police expect this list to drop dramatically, there are fears for some missing people in Hawke’s Bay and Gisborne, they said.

Many, including people from overseas, are making desperate pleas online for information on the whereabouts of their loved ones.

Facebook pages dedicated to finding missing people have been set and many, including people from overseas, have made pleas for information and sightings of their family members.

Missing South African family just moved to NZ

A South African family that recently settled in Gisborne to provide a better future for their children have not been heard from since Monday.

Karen de Beer, who spoke to the Herald from South Africa, said her sister Liesel Coetzee and Coetzee’s husband Heinrich and their children Emma, 2, and Liam, 13, immigrated to New Zealand four weeks ago.

“Her [Coetzee] husband got a better job opportunity and they were looking for a better future for their children.”

De Beer said the family were still in the process of getting settled into their Mangapapa, Gisborne home when the cyclone struck.

She said they had very few blankets, no emergency supplies such as torches and were still becoming familiar with the community.

The Coetzee family on the day they flew out from South Africa to move to New Zealand. Photo / Supplied

“I’m just a bit worried and I thought we would have got some kind of feedback by now,” said de Beer.

“We just want to know if their home is still fine or [if they] are they in a shelter.”

De Beer said there has not been much media coverage in South Africa about the cyclone and she only found out about it after a family member in Hamilton called them.

She then started looking at coverage online and was overwhelmed by the devastation, much of which she is trying to shelter from her and Coetzee’s mum.

She has also been watching live interviews of people talking from shelters hoping to spot her family.

Police help with evacuations at Venables Avenue in Maraenui, Napier. Photo Paul Taylor

Others from overseas have also been posting to the dedicated Facebook pages set up to help families find missing people.

A woman in England said she was looking for her dad and had not heard from him since Monday evening while a woman from Australia was trying to track down her nan.

Elderly grandfather not heard from since Sunday

Invercargill-based Megan Cotter said she has not heard from her 83-year-old grandfather Roy Currie since Sunday.

Cotter said not knowing how Currie is doing is causing a lot of stress for her and her family.

“[He has] health complications, he lives alone, yeah he lives alone, and his property backs right onto the river.”

Currie lives on a large property filled with trees in Nuhuka which is between Wairoa and Gisborne.

“We’re kind of pretty stressed out because you know he’s got quite a lot of potential hazards around him”

83-year-old Roy Currie has not been heard from since Sunday. Photo / Supplied

Cotter and her sister have contacted both police and Civil Defence twice each.

Meanwhile, the family of a couple from the UK have taken to social media to help them find the pair who were last known to be travelling inland from Thames just before Cyclone Gabrielle hit.

The missing couple are Fay and Martin Silk and they were travelling in a Maui campervan.

Hundreds of eastern region residents have been rescued from rooftops and waters since floods inundated the region, cutting off roads and bridges, and isolating communities.

Twelve helicopters were working to rescue people and it was expected the rescues would all be completed yesterday, Emergency Response Minister Kieran McAnulty said at a briefing on Wednesday.

The death toll from Cyclone Gabrielle has risen to five with “grave” fears of others dead in raging floodwaters.

Police said this morning they were investigating a death of a person in Gisborne who they believe was caught in floodwaters.