Rotorua Daily Post
  • Rotorua Daily Post home
  • Latest news
  • Business
  • Opinion
  • Lifestyle
  • Property
  • Sport
  • Video
  • Death notices
  • Classifieds

Subscriptions

  • Herald Premium
  • Viva Premium
  • The Listener
  • BusinessDesk

Sections

  • Latest news
  • On The Up
  • Business
  • Opinion
  • Lifestyle
    • All Lifestyle
    • Residential property listings
  • Property
    • All Property
    • Dairy farming
    • Sheep & beef farming
    • Horticulture
    • Animal health
    • Rural business
    • Rural life
    • Rural technology
  • Rural
  • Sport

Locations

  • Tauranga
  • Te Puke
  • Whakatāne
  • Rotorua
  • Tokoroa
  • Taupō & Tūrangi

Media

  • Video
  • Photo galleries
  • Today's Paper - E-Editions
  • Photo sales

Weather

  • Rotorua
  • Tauranga
  • Whakatāne
  • Tokoroa
  • Taupō

NZME Network

  • Advertise with NZME
  • OneRoof
  • Driven Car Guide
  • BusinessDesk
  • Newstalk ZB
  • Sunlive
  • ZM
  • The Hits
  • Coast
  • Radio Hauraki
  • The Alternative Commentary Collective
  • Gold
  • Flava
  • iHeart Radio
  • Hokonui
  • Radio Wanaka
  • iHeartCountry New Zealand
  • Restaurant Hub
  • NZME Events

SubscribeSign In
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Home / Rotorua Daily Post

Cyclone Gabrielle: Why the Bay of Plenty got off so lightly compared to other parts of New Zealand

Bay of Plenty Times
15 Feb, 2023 06:00 PM3 mins to read

Subscribe to listen

Access to Herald Premium articles require a Premium subscription. Subscribe now to listen.
Already a subscriber?  Sign in here

Listening to articles is free for open-access content—explore other articles or learn more about text-to-speech.
‌
Save

    Share this article

More than 10,000 people have been displaced up and down the North Island in the wake of what's been dubbed the "storm of the century". Video / NZ Herald / Supplied

Cyclone Gabrielle caused hundreds of people to evacuate their homes, made trees topple over and left thousands without power in the Bay of Plenty, but its impact locally was minimal compared to other parts of the North Island.

Hawke’s Bay is among the hardest hit, with a weather station recording three times the normal February rainfall in 24 hours, which caused widespread flooding and resulted in more than 300 people being rescued from rooftops.

Four people have been confirmed dead following the cyclone, three of whom were in Hawke’s Bay: a young person was located dead in Eskdale yesterday, and on Tuesday, a woman died after a landslide on her property and a body was found washed up at Bay View Beach, north of Napier that evening.

The body of a volunteer firefighter was recovered from a landslide in Muriwai yesterday afternoon.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

The Coromandel was also cut off on Tuesday from the rest of the country, with all major arterial roads closed.

MetService meteorologist Andrew James said the Bay of Plenty dodged the most severe weather due to its geography.

“The straightforward answer is that as the storm system rolled down, the winds were moving clockwise through the Bay of Plenty, so the rain was driven into the Raukūmara Ranges,” James said.

“The modelling was very clear. Cyclone Gabrielle did a little pivot near the Coromandel and then continued to track southeast. It’s done just that.”

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Flooding and debris on the road to Hahei at Cook's Beach. Photo / Mike Scott
Flooding and debris on the road to Hahei at Cook's Beach. Photo / Mike Scott

James said the Bay of Plenty would see a broader easing trend in the weather.

“There are still some afternoon showers, especially tomorrow, scattered through the afternoon and evening. After that, high pressure brings in a settling influence on the weather.”

Bay of Plenty Civil Defence public information manager Lisa Glass said the centre of the cyclone tracked in a straight line from Northland to East Cape before it swirled around to hit the east coast and Hawke’s Bay.

But the region only just missed the devastation of the storm by the narrowest of margins, she said.

“It really was touch-and-go in the wee small hours of Monday,” she said.

“We were poised to do some significant evacuations if the sea got much higher, and you only need to look at the tide marks around the place to see how high it got.

“It was a nervous wait until high tide on Monday night, and although we do have lots of damage across the place, when you see the devastation in Tairāwhiti and Hawkes Bay right now, we can count our blessings.”

Glass said all it would have taken was for that course to shift slightly “and that could have been us right now”.

Glass said her team were “still activated” at the moment, so the time for reviewing actions and what lessons, if any, could be learned was still to come.

Save

    Share this article

Latest from Rotorua Daily Post

Rotorua Daily Post

'Brazen' gang attack: Mongrel Mob members avoid jail

08 Jul 04:31 AM
Rotorua Daily Post

BoP shooting happened at 'private dwelling', suspect still wanted

08 Jul 01:36 AM
Rotorua Daily Post

21yo defends wounding charge after alleged hit-and-run at night market

08 Jul 12:05 AM

From early mornings to easy living

sponsored
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

Latest from Rotorua Daily Post

'Brazen' gang attack: Mongrel Mob members avoid jail

'Brazen' gang attack: Mongrel Mob members avoid jail

08 Jul 04:31 AM

Thirteen Mongrel Mob members attacked a rival gang at a Rotorua roundabout.

BoP shooting happened at 'private dwelling', suspect still wanted

BoP shooting happened at 'private dwelling', suspect still wanted

08 Jul 01:36 AM
21yo defends wounding charge after alleged hit-and-run at night market

21yo defends wounding charge after alleged hit-and-run at night market

08 Jul 12:05 AM
'Risk to the public': Police search for wanted man

'Risk to the public': Police search for wanted man

07 Jul 11:57 PM
Solar bat monitors uncover secrets of Auckland’s night sky
sponsored

Solar bat monitors uncover secrets of Auckland’s night sky

NZ Herald
  • About NZ Herald
  • Meet the journalists
  • Newsletters
  • Classifieds
  • Help & support
  • Contact us
  • House rules
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms of use
  • Competition terms & conditions
  • Our use of AI
Subscriber Services
  • Rotorua Daily Post e-edition
  • Manage your print subscription
  • Manage your digital subscription
  • Subscribe to Herald Premium
  • Subscribe to the Rotorua Daily Post
  • Gift a subscription
  • Subscriber FAQs
  • Subscription terms & conditions
  • Promotions and subscriber benefits
NZME Network
  • Rotorua Daily Post
  • The New Zealand Herald
  • The Northland Age
  • The Northern Advocate
  • Waikato Herald
  • Bay of Plenty Times
  • Hawke's Bay Today
  • Whanganui Chronicle
  • Viva
  • NZ Listener
  • Newstalk ZB
  • BusinessDesk
  • OneRoof
  • Driven Car Guide
  • iHeart Radio
  • Restaurant Hub
NZME
  • About NZME
  • NZME careers
  • Advertise with NZME
  • Digital self-service advertising
  • Book your classified ad
  • Photo sales
  • NZME Events
  • © Copyright 2025 NZME Publishing Limited
TOP