Thousands missing a week after Cyclone Gabrielle hits New Zealand

Prime Minister Chris Hipkins has called Gabrielle New Zealand’s biggest natural disaster this century.

On Sunday, police reported two more cyclone-related deaths in hard-hit Hawke’s Bay.

More fatalities are possible, Hipkins told reporters in the capital, Wellington because more than 6,400 people are missing.

Lives had been “turned upside down” and recovery was a “steep mountain ahead”, he said, pointing to disrupted telecommunications, shortages of freshwater and damaged roads still restricting access to some areas.

A team from Fiji is to leave for New Zealand in the coming days to assist with its recovery, one of 12 offers of international aid received so far, Hipkins said. Twenty-seven emergency workers from Australia are assisting with relief efforts.

Teams from the Auckland Council carried out rapid building assessments on damaged homes on Sunday in the coastal areas of Muriwai and Piha, about 60km (40 miles) west of the nation’s largest city, Auckland.

Emergency authorities and the military have been dropping critical supplies from helicopters to communities stranded since the cyclone, which washed away farms, bridges and livestock and inundated homes.