Cyclone Gabrielle horror: Child among at least four dead, over 1400 people can’t be reached

Four people are confirmed to have died, including a child, following Cyclone Gabrielle’s destruction across the North Island - and over 1400 people cannot be reached.

Police had “grave concerns” about several people reported missing in the Hawke’s Bay and Tairāwhiti and said they “anticipate an increase in the number of reports of missing people.”

The body of a child was found in Eskdale, in Napier at about 2pm today and it was believed they were caught in rising waters yesterday, police said.

Another person has been confirmed dead in Napier, with a body being found among driftwood in Bay View.

Further north towards Wairoa, another person died in a landslip. Police said the person died at a rural property on Matahourua Rd, in Putorino.

And emergency services in Auckland searching for volunteer firefighter Dave van Zwanenberg – who has been missing since a house toppled on him in Muriwai – have today discovered his body.

Altogether 1442 people have been registered as “uncontactable”, police said, the “vast majority” being in Hawke’s Bay and Tairāwhiti.

“The numbers include duplicate reports of the same person reported uncontactable by different people,” police said,

“While we expect a large number of the reports to be the result of communication lines being down, Police can confirm there are several people missing in the Hawke’s Bay and Tairawhiti areas, for whom we have grave concerns.”

Police National Headquarters has focused its efforts on the Eastern District encompassing the two areas, with more than 70 staff redeployed to the area from around the country.

“Communications into and out of the area continue to be challenging, however, as telecommunication services start to come back online, Police anticipate an increase in the number of reports of missing people, found people, damage to property, and demand for basic resources such as food, water, and fuel.”

As search crews in Hawke’s Bay continue to try get to people stranded by the floodwaters created by Cyclone Gabrielle, residents of Bay View and nearby Esk Valley – which had areas decimated and parts of it remaining underwater – spoke of their fears of more fatalities.

One man said a relative had seen multiple bodies floating in water near Bay View.

Another – who lives in a property on the Bay View shoreline – said other locals had told him they had seen the same thing.

Eskdale resident and former Havelock North mayor Jeff Whittaker described the devastation Cyclone Gabrielle caused throughout Esk Valley. Photo / Neil Reid

And prominent Eskdale resident, former Havelock North Borough Council councillor and mayor and one-term MP Jeff Whittaker said he had grave fears for those trapped by surging floodwaters in Esk Valley.

”I can imagine there will be some people lost in there,” he told the Herald. “There could be. I know a lot of people who live up the Valley. At Esk Park there is a housing [development] up there and we have no idea what has happened up there.

”We can’t go up there [to check]. There is no phone or communications [up there]. There could have been [a few more swept away] ... it took so long getting to [the area due to conditions].”

Hawke’s Bay was hammered by Cyclone Gabrielle from Monday night through to Tuesday morning.

After a night of wild wind and heavy rain, Whittaker was alerted to how dire the situation was out in Eskdale and Esk Valley when a Civil Defence alert was sent to his phone about 5.30am on Tuesday.

Outside it was complete darkness.

”It happened so quickly,” he said of the rising flooding.

His house is up on Esk Ridge, and when he could see over the valley below he witnessed the devastation.

”The water was up to the roof of some houses,” he said.

”It was bank to bank ... if you looked across Esk Valley, literally from side to side it was just full of water. There were no vineyards ... it was just water, just like looking out across [a bay]. That was at 7am, Tuesday.

”We could see people on top of houses waving.”

Some residents had considered heading into the floodwaters on jet skis, but were warned against it by first responders, he said.

An Esk Valley, Hawke's Bay, resident is plucked to safety by Defence Force personnel in an NH90 helicopter. Photo / NZDF

As Cyclone Gabrielle hammered the area, rescue helicopters were initially grounded due to dangerous flying conditions.

But when the winds died down, many rescue flights took off, saving people from roofs and other areas where they had managed to find life-saving sanctuary.

”They airlifted one lady out of a tree yesterday afternoon,” Whittaker said.

”She was in [serious] condition, they had her in the ambulance but then they couldn’t get her to the hospital [as the roads to Hastings were closed]. They got a helicopter out to the ambulance to airlift her to the hospital in Hastings.”

Whittaker said he felt for those who had been badly impacted by the cyclone, including those who had lost property and were desperately seeking information on their loved ones.

While, like the rest of Napier, he is without mains power, a generator installed four years ago meant he was still able to run appliances such as a fridge.

His property on the ridge had also not been badly damaged.

”We are up above the waterline on Esk Ridge, about 100m up. Fortunately, we didn’t have any slips, but everyone around us did,” he said.

The wait for power will be a long one for many locals.

Estimates vary between five days to potentially weeks until full power is restored in Hawke’s Bay.

Esther Robson, Daniel Munro, River Munro, 7, and Aeris Munro, 10, wade through floodwaters in Bayview, Napier. Photo / Warren Buckland

But like other residents throughout Hawke’s Bay, Whittaker is without the means to contact loved ones.

Cellphone communications are largely out in the region. Cellphone signals are few and far between.

For the majority of the time, locals cannot send texts, let alone make a phone call.

But some are striking it lucky; including at a central Napier supermarket, a hardware store that remains open and outside a business centre in Ahuriri.

Sharing the views of countless residents in the region, Whittaker said it was tough not being able to check in on loved ones living in areas cut off by flooded roads or where bridges have been washed away.

”I have family up in the Tukituki Valley and we can’t communicate with them up on the farm to see how they are,” he said.

“I have family in Te Awanga and can’t communicate with them.

”We just don’t know anything.”

Earlier today, Napier mayor Kirstin Wise urged people to stay off the roads for non-urgent travel.

She said the roads had to be kept clear for emergency services.

She also said the latest information they’d received from Transpower was that electricity was “likely to be a number of days away”.

”We’re communicating with them constantly to try and get some clarity around what that means,” she said.

Meanwhile, communications were “incredibly patchy” and Wise said the primary source of information is the radio.

”Cellphone coverage and internet coverage is pretty much non-existent,” she said.

”That lack of communication is really dire and it does elevate everybody’s feelings of anxiousness.

”If I’m completely honest we’re actually feeling pretty isolated at the moment and yeah I have been discussing that with the team this morning about how we can start accessing these [state of national emergency] resources at a national level because we don’t have the resources on hand here to be able to do it alone.”