Record-breaking rainfall hit Auckland in January, only to be followed by Cyclone Gabrielle ravaging the North Island in February
The New Zealand government is allocating NZ$1.1bn to help communities recover from Cyclone Gabrielle and flooding.
The funds from the 2023 budget are to cover “basics” of rebuilding roads, rail and schools, as well as flood protection, the government announced on Sunday.
Continue reading...Deadly storm left wine regions of Hawkes Bay and Gisborne covered in mud just before harvest time
Wine-growing regions in New Zealand’s North Island have been devastated by Cyclone Gabrielle, with some vineyards there facing a long path to recovery after being buried by torrents of silt just before harvest time.
Wine drinkers could face a long wait for their favourite bottle from Hawke’s Bay and Gisborne after last month’s storm, which killed at least 11 people, and left grower Philip Barber sheltering on the roof of his house with his wife and two small children.
Continue reading...A week after the storm struck the North Island, police say two more bodies were found in hard-hit Hawke’s Bay area
The death toll from Cyclone Gabrielle in New Zealand climbed to 11 as many people not yet contacted a week later.
The cyclone hit the North Island’s uppermost region on 12 February and tracked down the east coast, inflicting widespread devastation. The prime minister, Chris Hipkins, has called Gabrielle New Zealand’s biggest natural disaster this century.
Continue reading...Residents of Eskdale, in New Zealand, recount fears on night of flooding as they return to salvage belongings and rescuers continue search for bodies
Crouched in the dark, gripping the slick corrugated iron, Michael and Kelly McKendry hauled themselves and their daughter on to their rooftop. A few feet below, the flood moved in a seething brown mass, roiling under the gutters. “I couldn’t feel anything, I was just doing,” says Kelly. “As we went out our kitchen window, we heard a woman go past in the water screaming.”
Almost a week after Cyclone Gabrielle hit New Zealand, the couple have returned to find the green valley where they made their home a moonscape. Orchard vines are stripped from the wires, cornfields are flattened, and everything is coated in a metres-thick layer of iron-grey sludge. Motorhomes and caravans lie tossed across the landscape, windscreens smashed, metalwork caved in, some upside down and stacked on top of one another, others submerged to their roofs in the mud. The railway line running through the valley has buckled in on itself, twisted into looping ribbons. One house has been carried almost a kilometre from its foundations, logs impaled through walls shredded like damp cardboard.
Continue reading...North Island wakes to devastation, as flood waters continue to rise, hundreds rescued from rooftops and more than 10,000 people displaced
New Zealand was attempting to come to grips with the extent of destruction from Cyclone Gabrielle, as the severe weather system moves away from the country, leaving behind high flood waters, widespread damage, more than 10,000 displaced and at least three dead.
As much of the country woke on Wednesday morning to clear skies, some parts of the North Island remained cut off from all access, power and communications, making assessing the damage or reaching those in need difficult.
Continue reading...National state of emergency invoked and thousands displaced as storm devastates large parts of North Island and minister says ‘this is climate change’
New Zealand is in a national state of emergency, as Cyclone Gabrielle batters the country, with floods trapping people on roofs, thousands displaced and landslides destroying homes in what officials have described as an “unprecedented” natural disaster.
“Cyclone Gabrielle is the most significant weather event New Zealand has seen in this century. The severity and the damage that we are seeing has not been experienced in a generation,” the prime minister, Chris Hipkins, said on Tuesday. “We are still building a picture of the effects of the cyclone as it continues to unfold. But what we do know is the impact is significant and it is widespread.”
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New Zealand’s national power grid operator has declared a “grid emergency” and warned that power might not be restored to some for “for days to weeks, rather than hours”.
The widespread power cuts in Hawkes Bay and Bay of Plenty happened after a substation flooded during severe rain from Cyclone Gabrielle.
Continue reading...James Shaw says country is entering ‘period of consequences’ for inaction over climate change as extreme weather wreaks havoc across the North Island
New Zealand’s climate change minister has made a furious speech excoriating parliament for lost decades of “bickering” over the climate crisis, as Cyclone Gabrielle devastates the country.
“As I stand here today, I struggle to find words to express what I am thinking and feeling about this particular crisis,” James Shaw told parliament on Tuesday.
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