Cyclone Gabrielle: Police officer assaulted at checkpoint in Napier, more than 4000 people uncontactable across Eastern District

A person has been arrested after assaulting a police officer at a checkpoint in Napier on Thursday and more than 4000 people remain uncontactable across Hawke’s Bay and Tairawhiti.

Eastern District Commander Superintendant Jeanette Park told the Hawke’s Bay Today an officer was assaulted by an intoxicated woman at a checkpoint on Marine Parade and Ellison St, State Highway 51, in Napier on Thursday.

“That person has been arrested and will be facing charges,” Park said.

She said the officers involved are recovering.

“Our staff are out there every day in an emergency response so I don’t want to see people taking their aggression out on our people because they’ve got a job to do and it takes our other staff away and they get injured and it is terrible, we don’t want to see that happening.”

She said police understood people were suffering and under pressure but they didn’t want to see that play out aggressively and asked for people in need of support to reach out.

Two people have also been taken into custody and charges were being considered after armed police responded to a report of shots fired in Pirimai, Napier about 4.30pm on Thursday.

Two people have been taken into custody and charges are being considered.

There were no reports of injuries.

Park said the incident took place between two parties.

Commissioner of Police Andrew Coster with Jeanette Park, Eastern District Commander, speaking at a media conference Hawke's Bay emergency management centre, Hastings. Photo / Warren Buckland

She said a firearm had also been located inside a vehicle in relation to a further incident.

“Arrests have been made and we are on top of it,” Park said.

“As I said yesterday (Thursday), we will not tolerate, and we will take a very hard line, on any criminal behaviour, especially behaviour where people are stealing from properties where people have lost everything.”

She said there had been no armed robbery or looting involving firearms police were aware of around the region since the cyclone hit.

Earlier today, New Zealand Police Commissioner Andrew Coster said 4500 people had been reported as uncontactable and 900 people had reported themselves as ok across Hawke’s Bay and Tairawhiti.

“We’ve got about 80 staff at the moment trying to reconcile people uncontactable with those that have been found.”

There are six confirmed deaths in the Eastern District, five in Hawke’s Bay - these include a two-year-old in Eskdale, a woman in Pūtōrino, a woman found on the beach at Bay View, the body of a man, aged in his 70s, found in Waiohiki, on Thursday, and a person in Puketapu, near Napier, who is believed to have died after being caught in flood water.

Coster said a makeshift mortuary was established earlier as a contingency for the possibility that it might be required.

He said there was 100 additional staff on the ground across Hawke’s Bay and Tairāwhiti, and the eagle helicopter was available in the region as well.

“We will be taking a very close focus on the law and order security around these communities that have been so badly affected and you can expect that we will be dealing very swiftly with anyone who plays up.”

Lines company Unison said today that 37,410 homes remained without power in Hawke’s Bay - 31,630 of these are in Napier.

There are still 37,000 homes without power in Hawke’s Bay — 31,700 in Napier and 5300 in Hastings — with Unison looking at alternative short-term solutions such as bringing in more generators.

Unison relationship manager Danny Gough said it had been working with Transpower to put in place an emergency solution to bypass the damaged Redclyffe substation and power up the Whakatu substation.

This would enable power to be supplied to parts of Napier and its suburbs.

“We expect to begin progressively restoring parts of Napier from Saturday as well as remaining parts of Hastings without power around Whakatu, Clive and Te Awanga,” Gough said.

Previously residents had been warned to prepare for an outage of an extended period of up to two weeks.