Nine people are dead and authorities have ‘grave fears’ for others, while more than 4500 people still can’t be contacted, says Prime Minister Chris Hipkins.
The situation in Hawke’s Bay is “very rough” and there are still large parts of Napier without power and evacuation centres are full, the PM says.
The prime minister has confirmed eight people have died due to the cyclone, with the Herald aware of a ninth person, George Luke, the father of former Kiwi star Issac Luke, dead following a slip on the Taihape-Napier road.
Emergency services have held grave concerns for more deaths as search and rescue teams continue to look in homes, cars and access isolated communities.
There are 4549 people uncontactable and every resource available was being used to assist in searching for people missing - including a team from Australia which arrived today.
Hipkins said about 62,000 remained without power across the North Island.
Authorities were also working on cell tower coverage, which had been returned to about 70 per cent of people in affected areas, getting fuel tankers into affected areas, and getting safe water back into Gisborne households.
Air Commodore Darryn Webb said HMNZS Manawanui has delivered supplies to Tokomaru Bay. Resources to assist with water supply and power were also arriving.
Gisborne residents have been urged to stop using the main water supply as it threatens to run dry after issues at the backup water treatment plant. The main supply line was severed in seven places during the storm and there is currently no timeline for when it could be repaired.
A C-130 Hercules has just departed Auckland with water treatment facilities for Gisborne.
The team was identifying further areas for helicopters to arrive and in Wairoa a water treatment plant had been set up.
In Hawke’s Bay, HMNZS Te Mana is currently offloading 26 tonnes of supplies.
The army has also established a headquarters in Napier and are prepared to construct temporary bridges as needed, Webb said.
“It is an extraordinary time and we are seeing an extraordinary effort from some amazing New Zealanders,” he added.
Earlier today Hipkins visited Hawke’s Bay and was told there were potentially thousands of residents who were yet to be contacted by emergency services. He promised as many resources as possible are being provided to assist in the cyclone response.
Hipkins started his time in Hawke’s Bay with a visit to an emergency management group centre in Hastings, where he received a briefing.
He then travelled north to Napier to the Rodney Green Centennial Event Centre which had been transformed into a shelter for those displaced by the floods.
Joined by Labour ministers including Kieran McAnulty and local Stuart Nash, Hipkins spoke largely to shelter coordinators looking at food supplies and discussing how the facility was operating.
He also took time to take photos with members of the public at their request, and heard stories from those impacted by flooding.
Prime Minister Chris Hipkins receiving a hug from Tukituki MP Anna Lorck as he arrives at an emergency management centre in Hastings. Photo / Mark Mitchell
Hipkins, escorted by local Civil Defence staff, was driven up a hill overlooking Esk Valley where he was able to see the extent of the damage and ask further questions of Civil Defence.
Hipkins then moved to the nearby Eskdale School where he met with search and rescue staff who had based themselves at the school as they looked for people in need.
One, a Hawke’s Bay local, was brave enough to ask the Prime Minister “good start to the reign ay?”, which prompted chuckles from the responders in earshot and from Hipkins himself.
Speaking to reporters briefly at the school, Hipkins said search and rescue staff needed time to canvas those communities that hadn’t yet been reached.
“We’ve got an amazing group of people here who are just throwing everything at it,” Hipkins said.
Fraser told the Prime Minister how they had had to be creative in order to access isolated communities, saying this afternoon the team would be attempting to reach residents of Ellis Wallace Rd by going up a mountain bike track and travelling over farmland.
Speaking to reporters, Fraser acknowledged there was a chance some communities hadn’t been contacted yet.
“As you can imagine, there are many outlying communities, Waiora’s another pretty badly affected area.
“Our main priority now is to make sure that there’s nobody trapped in houses and also no deceased in the flood-affected properties.”
As a local, Fraser said the impact on his region was “pretty devastating”.
“I’ve grown up in this area so seeing what we’re seeing at the moment is pretty gut-wrenching but there are some pretty awesome people out there already starting to get in and make a difference.”
Emergency Management Minister Kieran McAnulty, speaking from a shelter in Napier, told reporters his focus was to receive an update from Civil Defence representatives.
“Whenever I come to these sorts of things, I want to get a gauge that everyone’s getting what they need and so far I haven’t heard that they’re not, so that’s deeply encouraging,” he said.
“We’ve got to make sure that those communication lines stay up because the one thing I’m hearing from everyone is without being able to communicate freely through technology, it’s just making the whole thing that much harder and that’s really rough.”
McAnulty said he would be leaving Napier to travel north to Wairoa, a community he was “really worried about”.
Asked about people who were still in desperate need of support, McAnulty was confident emergency responders were employing every resource available.
“There are so many breaks in the system and this is not going to be a quick fix.”
