After Cyclone Gabrielle reclassified as a storm, high winds and heavy rain hit the North Island, preventing the resumption of air traffic. A firefighter is missing.
The New Zealand government declared a state of emergency on Tuesday as tens of thousands of people went without power due to a tropical storm battering the north of the country. “These are unprecedented bad weather which have a huge impact across the north of the country”said Emergency Management Minister Kieran McAnulty. This is only the third time New Zealand has declared a state of emergency following the Christchurch bombings in 2019 and the Covid outbreak in 2020. A state of emergency was first declared in five northern regions of the archipelago, involving almost a third of the country’s 5.1 million inhabitants.
509 canceled flights
“We are facing large-scale flooding, landslides, damaged roads and other infrastructure”added the Minister. Although the storm was downgraded from its cyclone status as it approached New Zealand on Sunday, downpours and high winds downed trees, damaged roads and brought down power lines. A firefighter is missing, authorities said. New Zealand Prime Minister Chris Hipkins, based in Wellington, was among a few thousand people stranded in Auckland (north), after the cancellation of flights due to the storm. “Things will get worse before they get better”he said Monday at a press conference, calling on the population to “prepareand to “stay indoors if you can”.
Wind gusts reaching 140 km / h have hit northern New Zealand. DIEGO OPATOWSKI / AFP
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Wind gusts of up to 140 km/h have hit northern New Zealand, and gusts of up to 110 km/h have been recorded at the Auckland Harbor Bridge. Auckland, the country’s largest city with 1.6 million people, is barely recovering from flash floods that killed four people in late January and forced thousands from their homes. The weather conditions have disrupted New Zealand’s transport network, with cancellations of flights and train and bus journeys. Air New Zealand said it had canceled 509 flights so far, but traffic was expected to resume as normal on Tuesday. The airline said that the movements of some 10,000 international customers have been disrupted.
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