The death toll from Cyclone Gabrielle has reached nine people as emergency teams continue to search for missing people.
Video / Mark Mitchell / George Heard / Mike Scott
Police are investigating a death in Hawke’s Bay in the aftermath of Cyclone Gabrielle.
The body was found this morning and police believe the death was “related to Cyclone Gabrielle”.
There are at least nine Kiwi families mourning tragic deaths from Cyclone Gabrielle, while emergency teams continue to hunt for missing people and rush urgent food and water supplies to isolated communities.
The tragedy has hit hard in Hawke’s Bay and Tairāwhiti Gisborne, where seven people have now been confirmed dead, including a 2-year-old girl and the father of a rugby league star. Two others - volunteer firefighters - died after a landslip at Muriwai.
Civil Defence says the landslide risk in Piha and Muriwai remains high. About 20 homes were evacuated in Piha due to land instability, and an exclusion zone is in place for a large part of Muriwai.
Auckland’s emergency management controller Adam Maggs told Morning Report engineers are assessing roads and land. He says people who aren’t residents should stay away from the coast.
Nearly 5000 people have been reported as unaccounted for following Cyclone Gabrielle. Police have “grave concerns” for about 10 people, officials said at a press conference at 1pm on Saturday.
Almost 2000 people also remained in evacuation centres in Hawke’s Bay, while potentially up to 1000 residents in that region and Tairāwhiti were beyond the reach of emergency services.
Teams – including a specialist Australian crew flying in to help – were keenly focused on establishing regular contact with cut-off communities and restoring essential services to the wider areas where food, water, power and communications remained in limited supply.
Water was an acute problem in Gisborne, with authorities yesterday declaring a crisis and asking residents to stop using the precious resource.
Napier in Hawke’s Bay was also still without power in the evening, leaving thousands without refrigerated food and internet connections.
Hipkins said that – having now toured both regions - the scale of the devastation he witnessed was horrific.
“Life on the ground in the affected areas is incredibly tough, and it’s going to be for some time to come,” he said.
Esk Valley is still covered in mud days after Cyclone Gabrielle. Photo / Warren Buckland
Yet - while the challenges were vast - progress was being made, Hipkins said.
Food, fuel and other supplies were now making their way in by road, sea and air.
Speaking with those involved in the emergency response, he said he told all of them they were “making a hell of a difference in an incredibly difficult set of circumstances”.
“Responding to this cyclone and getting communities back on their feet is going to take some time ... I cannot overstate the task that is in front of us.”
Victims of Cyclone Gabrielle
Cyclone Gabrielle’s most tragic sting is the mounting loss of life it has brought.
Those who have lost their lives include 2-year-old Eskdale girl Ivy, who was swept out of her mother’s arms in floodwaters in Hawke’s Bay on Tuesday morning, as the family fled their home.
Ivy and her mum. Photo / Ella Collins
Kiwi league star Issac Luke’s father, George Luke, also died in a slip on the Taihape-Napier road on Monday night.
Luke and his partner Mau Goodman were returning to Hastings from Rotorua and took the winding route over the Kaweka Ranges when bad weather closed the Napier-Taupo road.
When their family did not hear from them, a desperate search was launched, with appeals being made on social media.
The couple were eventually located yesterday and evacuated by helicopter to Hawke’s Bay Hospital in Hastings, where Luke later died.
George Luke, father of Kiwis star Issac Luke, died after he was hit by a slip on SH5, the Taihape-Napier road. Photo / Supplied
Marie Greene also died in Cyclone Gabrielle, with her body being found in her cottage in Puketapu, one of the areas hit worst by the storm.
The 59-year-old was found by her landlord’s son and was remembered as “a wonderful cook and baker”.
Marie Greene was found in her Hawke's Bay home. Photo / Supplied
John Coates, 64, was another who was yesterday named among the dead, passing away in the floodwaters that engulfed his Te Karaka home in the Gisborne region early on Tuesday morning.
His son said three attempts were made to rescue Coates, but the area went from “ankle deep to vehicles floating in 20 minutes … It was like an island tsunami of water coming in basically”.
With grave fears still held for others, police have allocated 80 staff to prioritise narrowing down and finding the 4500 people still listed as uncontactable.
John Coates died in floodwaters at his Te Karaka, Gisborne property. Photo / Supplied
Hawke’s Bay
Touring the region yesterday, Hipkins recounted seeing evacuation centres still full of people – some simply dropping in to pick up a meal or supplies but others forced to sleep there.
Authorities said about 1900 people were still staying in the centres.
Hipkins also said he spoke to families who had lost their homes and everything they owned.
“That is incredibly challenging,” he said
Those rallying to help them were amazing Kiwis making an “extraordinary effort”, he said.
HMNZS Te Mana has arrived in Napier with much-needed supplies. Photo / Mike Scott
That included residents from the Esk Valley, which earlier this week was the scene of mass flooding and tragic deaths, but also heroic rescues.
The valley was now full of mud, settling over the tops of grapevines and filling homes.
Floodwaters with nowhere to go were still pooling inland and making new lakes out of farmland and destroying orchards and crops, he said.
In Hawke’s Bay’s biggest city, Napier residents also spent yet another day without power yesterday.
Hipkins said about 40,000 more homes had been connected across the country yesterday since the day before, but about 62,000 were still without power.
Around 40,000 of them were in Hawke’s Bay, including 31,700 in Napier and about 1000 in Wairoa.
Supplier Transpower said an urgent operation to bypass damaged electricity infrastructure was completed yesterday evening with work set to continue through the night, raising hopes many Napier homes could be reconnected today.
Daryl Grant with his sister-in-law's dog Lucy, after rescuing her from the family property at Pakowhai in Hawke's Bay. Photo / Mark Mitchell
In good news, about 90 per cent of Hastings homes and 95 per cent of Havelock North homes had been reconnected, up from 60 per cent on Thursday.
Power has been restored to some people in Ahuriri and Hospital Hill, residents in Napier reported last night.
People on Hospital Hill could be heard shouting: “We’ve got power! Yay!”
Others clapped in the street. “Bloody good eh,” one person driving by said.
Power has also been restored in parts of Clive, as well as in the CBD, according to locals.
Nearly all supermarkets were up and running again, with power generators being made available to supermarkets and pharmacies to allow them to open in both Hawke’s Bay and Gisborne.
The opening of the SH2 Napier-Hastings Expressway also made it easier for residents to get supplies.
However, earlier in the day long queues for petrol and dwindling food supplies had led some residents to squabble and fight, while others took to social media to warn of thieves preying on victims of the flooding.
Yet overall, most residents expressed pride in the way so many people were banding together to help each other.
That included butchers and local restaurants giving away free food, commercial restaurants opening up their kitchens for others to cook in and residents posting pictures of spare clothes that can be given to those in need.
Elsewhere, it has been reported an army of volunteers has been going out to devastated areas across the region to lend a hand - whether in a digger or truck, or with spade or food in hand.
Tairāwhiti Gisborne
Emergency teams were yesterday urgently working to get safely usable water back to households in the Gisborne region, with water supply still under pressure in many areas, Hipkins said.
Emergency teams earlier declared a crisis and asked residents to stop using water.
Civil Defence said there were still people in isolated Tairāwhiti communities who have not heard from emergency teams, and reaching them was the current focus of operations.
Truck convoys of food supplies also arrived from Ōpōtiki via State Highway 2, meaning supermarkets will be restocking shelves tomorrow.
Gisborne Hospital was also in operation, although with a limited water supply.
Cyclone Gabrielle cut off State Highway 35 near Mangatuna, washing away a bridge. Photo / George Heard
About 1100 customers remained without power, meanwhile, with many being in rural and remote areas where access is difficult.
Telecoms companies were working to get services back up and running, with text and phone call services being restored to many areas, although internet connections would take longer.
Starlink satellite units were being set up in rural areas to create internet hubs for communities.
The Navy ship HMNZS Manawanui had also dropped off essential supplies at Tokomaru Bay and Waipiro Bay and was restocking before returning with more goods.
Auckland
Auckland’s emergency response remained focused on the west coast communities of Muriwai, Piha, Te Henga (Bethells Beach) and Karekare.
Authorities asked people to stay away from the communities, saying access was “severely restricted” due to landslips and dangerous road conditions.
Muriwai firefighter Craig Stevens is one of two crew members who died as a result of a landslip. Photo / Supplied
Late yesterday afternoon, fire crews issued an urgent evacuation notice for residents on Domain Cres in Muriwai due to fears of further landslips.
Auckland Emergency Management deputy controller Rachel Kellher called on residents to be ready to evacuate from other homes in the area at short notice, taking nothing but their pets, as there was still the possibility of landslips.
Approximately 8000 homes were without power across the region yesterday, down from 16,000 a day before, while more than 2000 homes have been severely damaged since the flooding in January.
