Fears mount for missing as rescue attempts continue
As affected communities crawl back online, Virginia Fallon reports it’s clear there’s still a long and painful road ahead for regions.
Almost 5000 people are unaccounted for and grave concerns are held for about 10 still missing in the devastation left by Cyclone Gabrielle.
The official death toll stands at nine, and Police Deputy Commissioner Glenn Dunbier guessed about half those as reported uncontactable are in the cut-off East Cape area.
‘‘We triage the reports of people that are missing and clearly those that we have heightened concerns for will come to the top,’’ Dunbier said, adding the number fluctuates day to day.
He also warned police would take a ‘‘hard line’’ on illegal behaviour, following reports of a Napier shooting incident and looting of shops and evacuated homes, as well as issues of aggression towards workers and thefts of generators powering cellphone towers.
Nearly a week after the cyclone hit New Zealand’s northern regions, yesterday’s official update painted a picture of still-dire conditions, though there have been improvements.
Roger Ball, acting director for the National Emergency Management Agency, said the key focus was returning cellphone coverage back to affected areas.
About 90% of cellphone towers were operating again in Hawke’s Bay, 80% in Auckland, and 30% in Gisborne – but this was expected to greatly improve by the end of the weekend.
Ball said about 24% of households in Napier now have electricity and urgent work was continuing to bring more online as quickly as possible. Gisborne’s water plant was back up and running after a replacement unit was delivered late Friday on a C130 Hercules.
There’d also been some improvement in Wairoa, an area that’s been a particular focus for urgent assistance. BP had assured some fuel could be delivered and there is an option to fly it in as well.
Other reports from yesterday also hinted at slow but crucial improvements in affected areas. While 39,000 Hawke’s Bay homes were still without power, one company, Northpower, announced 25,000 had been restored in the Northland and Kaipara regions.
Also in the region, of the 393 dairy farms that initially lost power, only 43 were still cut off and remained a priority.
But even as some of the
affected communities come back online, other updates made it clear there’s still a long and painful road ahead.
Currently, 1500 people are sheltering in civil defence centres, most of them in Hawke’s Bay, where more than 120 Urban Search and Rescue (Usar) staff have been joined by 25 from Australia.
The teams continue combing the worst-hit areas in Hawke’s Bay and Gisborne Tairā whiti for survivors, checking individual houses and revisiting 111 calls to target specific areas.
Assisting in the efforts are members of Surf Lifesaving NZ in inflatable rescue boats while cadaver dogs have been requested from the police.
The hardest-hit areas in Hawke’s Bay are around the Esk Valley, Dartmoor, Puketapu, and Pakowhai. But there is also widespread damage in Awatoto,
Waiohiki, Omahu, Meeanee, and other pockets all around the Napier and Hastings area. Bridges in the region have been torn apart like twigs.
Across Hawke’s Bay, Usar teams had finished checks on 340 houses, with thousands more searched and checked. Some will need to be double-checked in a region where rescuers say they initially couldn’t tell the difference between floodwaters and the sea.
It’s also there that authorities are warning homeowners to stay out of flood-damaged homes, as the water can be toxic and contain fertiliser, sewage, and other chemicals. The bacterial risk is high and electricity should be turned off if it is restored.
But amongst the grim news were more stories of both resilience and unimaginable personal loss.
Pakowhai couple Steve Tipu (Ngati Kahungunu) and his wife Karen told of making a desperate escape with their foster children, aged 2 and 6, and 18-year-old son as the Ngaruroro River broke its banks.
The couple have fostered 28 children, eight of whom had called the now-destroyed rental house their home.
‘‘There have been a lot of awesome memories in here, but it’s all shattered now. It’s overwhelming, it’s devastating, it’s traumatic,’’ Steve said.
As the now-homeless Tipu family struggled to process the damage, about 25km north of Gisborne, a working bee of around 100 were pitching in to get rid of damaged items from inside ruined homes.
In the small settlement of Te Karaka, about 60 displaced people have been spending their nights in the local school, now an evacuation centre.