Mass destruction: An aerial view showing flooding in the Hawkes Bay region in the aftermath of Cyclone Gabrielle. — AFP
Napier (New Zealand): A New Zealand mum has recounted the heartbreak of watching her two-year-old daughter being swept away in floodwaters unleashed by Cyclone Gabrielle, which has killed at least eight people.
The storm has faded into the South Pacific but left a trail of destruction and human suffering across New Zealand’s North Island.
About 10,000 people are displaced, cities and towns are still without power and drinking water, and local government officials estimate tens or even hundreds of communities have yet to be contacted.
Police yesterday confirmed an eighth death as a result of the storm, saying “the person is believed to have died after being caught in flood water”.
Details are only gradually emerging about the scale of the disaster and the horrors endured by survivors such as Ella Louise Collins.
Collins, her husband and their two kids were trapped in their one-storey home in the hard-hit Hawke’s Bay region when the floodwaters arrived.
“The water was about 10cm from the ceiling in our house and rose extremely quickly and violently,” Collins wrote in a Facebook post on Thursday.
The family of four tried to escape to the safety of a neighbour’s roof, but were stopped by what she called “a sudden torrent of water which almost drowned us all”. In the chaos, two-and-a-half-year-old Ivy was swept away and drowned.
Prime Minister Chris Hipkins toured the Hawke’s Bay region yesterday, saying “the whole country” was feeling for communities affected. — AFP
