In Hawke’s Bay, cows swim to save their lives. In Northland, incessant winds knock down power poles like a match. And across New Zealand’s flooded North Island, people who have lost their homes and livelihoods anxiously await a slow, painful and costly cleanup.
As of Friday morning, at least six people had died, and more than 3,500 were still missing for days afterward. Hurricane Gabrielle sweeps the northern half of New Zealanddevastated vast swathes of land and displaced more than 10,000 people.
With communications still lost in many parts of New Zealand, the full extent of the storm’s damage – the worst on the country’s record – remains unknown. The possibility of worse weather appears; The national weather agency, MetService, has warned of severe thunderstorms with possible hail in the North Island on Thursday night.
At least one economist has estimated that the recovery will cost billions of dollars, and Prime Minister Chris Hipkins said New Zealand would accept international aid. “This is a sad event,” Mr. Hipkins told a news conference. “Restoring infrastructure as quickly as possible is a huge challenge, but we have to admit we are on a bumpy road.” Australia has offered to help.
On Tuesday, when the storm arrived, a national emergency was declared for the third time in New Zealand’s history. That allows the Hipkins government to deploy more resources to move people out of danger or to send clean water and other supplies, including helicopters, two large ships and transport planes. C-130 Hercules.
Hawke’s Bay, on the east coast of the North Island – an area dubbed New Zealand’s “fruit bowl” – was one of the worst-affected areas. Four of the five known deaths occurred there; crops were ruined, and villages were covered in silt, according to reported in the local media.
As floodwaters flooded their homes, people fled to higher ground and evacuation centers in schools and marae, the meeting houses of the Maori, the indigenous people of New Zealand.
In Te Karaka, a small town near the east coast, 500 people were forced to evacuate early Tuesday morning. “Everything happened so fast”, one resident told a local TV station. “We all went up the hill, and then we just watched everything unfold in front of us, and watched our town basically fall apart.”
The Gisborne Herald, a local newspaper with a circulation of about 10,000, said on Twitter that its editorial board had “not had any communication” until early Wednesday afternoon, before the internet became available. satellite and they can put together a publication. About 22,000 issues were handed out to residents to keep them informed about dwindling water supplies, Gisborne’s mayor, Rehette Stoltz, told Radio New Zealand.
Some New Zealanders have taken to social media to ask for updates from loved ones who haven’t heard the news. In a new Facebook group, which has thousands of new members, people have shared updates and photos, requested safety checks, and volunteered to provide spare bedrooms to those in need.
A viral video, posted to social media by a veterinary clinic in Waipukurau, showing a herd of 23 cows swimming to safety across the Waipawa River after floodwaters reached neck-high. Kylie McIntyre, a dairy farmer, calls her cows from the riverbank: “Come on girls, come here.”
Jason Smith, a farmer and former mayor of Kaipara, a rural area of about 27,000 people, said that in the far north of the country, known as Northland, large areas are still underwater.
“There’s still standing water now, acres, acres of standing water, like three days later, and you say, ‘Wow, we’ve never had that before,'” he said. “Power poles and lines were basically ripped from the ground by the wind,” he added, leaving the area disconnected from the national grid.
Farmers in the area have been particularly struggling. Without electricity, dairy farmers took turns using emergency generators to milk their cows and avoid an animal health crisis. In Dargaville, where about 95 percent of all kumara, a New Zealand yams, are a staple in many diets, flooding will wipe out most of the year’s crop, said Mr Smith.
He added: “We are facing the possibility that production is only 5% of normal.
Mr Hipkins said on Thursday that climate change will bring more such storms and New Zealand will have to ensure that its transport, energy and communication systems are “as robust as possible”. “.
“We will see more of these types of events, and making sure we are prepared for them will require a significant amount of time, energy and investment,” he said.
Earlier this week, in the first days of the storm, James Shaw, co-leader of New Zealand’s Green Party, angrily rebuked other lawmakers for years of inaction on climate change, the effects The movement he spoke of is now clear. “We can’t bury our heads in the sand when the beach is flooded,” he said. “We must act now.”
