The death toll from New Zealand’s cyclone has reached eight with more than 4,500 people still unaccounted for four days after the nation’s most destructive weather event in decades.
Cyclone Gabrielle struck the country’s north on Monday, bringing widespread flooding, landslides and power outages, and the level of damage has been compared to Cyclone Bola in 1988. That storm was the most destructive on record to hit the nation of five million people.
Prime Minister Chris Hipkins said three more deaths had been confirmed since Thursday and police held “grave fears” for other missing people.
“Police report that there are 4,549 persons reported as uncontactable. A team of 80 people are working now to narrow down this list as quickly as possible and to prioritise contact with those who are most likely to be missing,” he told reporters.
Weekend of largely warm and sunny weather to give way to rain next week
Ireland weather: Washout summer set to continue - but this weekend will offer a reprieve
Your top stories on Tuesday: Rain warning for 18 counties today; Aer Lingus accepts Labour Court proposals
Rain warning issued for 18 counties with risk of local flooding
Mr Hipkins said he did not know how far the death toll would climb. “The thing is we don’t know. We’re not talking huge numbers,” he said.
A team of 25 Australian disaster response experts arrived on Friday to help local authorities.
The North Island east coast around New Zealand’s most populous city, Auckland, has been hardest hit and several communities remained isolated on Friday.
Auckland was swamped two weeks ago by a record-breaking storm that killed four people. – AP