New Zealand grapples with cyclone damage as death toll rises

WELLINGTON, New Zealand — The whole of New Zealand will feel the effects of damage from Cyclone Gabrielle, Prime Minister Chris Hipkins said Friday. At least eleven people had been killed in the storm, the BBC reported Monday, and thousands could not be contacted.

Cyclone Gabrielle has caused widespread evacuations, power outages and damage to properties and infrastructure across large swathes of the country’s North Island.

Evacuations were still taking place on Friday due to fears of landslides.

Hipkins had been in Hawke’s Bay, one of the worst affected regions, on Friday.

“It’s very rough up there,” he told a media conference.

In some parts, mud had completely filled houses and covered grapevines, while there was still trapped floodwater. Evacuation centers were full with people displaced by the damage, he said.

“I saw first-hand today just how much Cyclone Gabrielle is going to affect the country,” he said.

The Hawke’s Bay region is often referred to as the “food basket” of New Zealand, with many orchards and farms. Farmers lost entire harvests and herds to the flooding, the BBC reported on Monday, and authorities are still working to determine how much of the damage will be covered by insurance.

“We need to prepare ourselves, it is going to disrupt parts of our food supply. We are going to be dealing with the effects of this cyclone for quite some time,” Hipkins told dpa. “I cannot overstate the scale of the task that is in front of us.”

Hipkins said more than 6,500 people were uncontactable after the cyclone, according to the BBC, but he added that authorities knew that about 4,200 of them were alright.