Are all the Kiwis here okay? (Cyclone Gabrielle)

[Unimportant]

NZ has declared a state of national emergency. Entire regions are cut off with no cell phone or landline coverage. A firefighter is missing in a landslide.

I'm crossing fingers, toes and eyes that all my fellow Kiwi AWers (and everyone else) stay safe.

This cyclone is a ripper.

 

[Janine R]

NZ has declared a state of national emergency. Entire regions are cut off with no cell phone or landline coverage. A firefighter is missing in a landslide.

I'm crossing fingers, toes and eyes that all my fellow Kiwi AWers (and everyone else) stay safe.

This cyclone is a ripper.

This looks like a terrifying Van Gogh

 

[Meg]

Sounds like you are okay where you are?

 

[Unimportant]

Sounds like you are okay where you are?

My place is okay so far, but several towns/areas nearby have lost power. Farther away from me, a couple of areas are forecast to be without power for a week. The rain and wind comes in bands -- it lets up and becomes eerily quiet, and then the howling begins again. I keep eyeballing the remaining willow trees and hope none of them decide to follow their friend's example in the cyclone last month (in which it fell onto my brand new fence).

The North Island is bad in general, and very very bad to the north and east. Pics of fallen trees, toppled houses, munted roads and bridges, major slips, floods up to rooftops....pretty dire.

 

[NickyRainbow]

The North Island is bad in general, and very very bad to the north and east. Pics of fallen trees, toppled houses, munted roads and bridges, major slips, floods up to rooftops....pretty dire.

How awful. Those photos paint a scary picture! Stay safe, and fingers crossed you hold on to your power!

 

[Janine R]

My place is okay so far, but several towns/areas nearby have lost power. Farther away from me, a couple of areas are forecast to be without power for a week. The rain and wind comes in bands -- it lets up and becomes eerily quiet, and then the howling begins again. I keep eyeballing the remaining willow trees and hope none of them decide to follow their friend's example in the cyclone last month (in which it fell onto my brand new fence).

The North Island is bad in general, and very very bad to the north and east. Pics of fallen trees, toppled houses, munted roads and bridges, major slips, floods up to rooftops....pretty dire.

Pics are pretty scary. Those workers on the roof, all look so unnaturally calm. Are rescues underway?

 

[Unimportant]

Pics are pretty scary. Those workers on the roof, all look so unnaturally calm. Are rescues underway?

Rescuing as and when they can, but in that area the winds are pretty constant and it's too rough for choppers to fly And they've had to abandon attempts to find the firefighter buried in the landslide

 

[Unimportant]

Lots of folks can't get out of their town because the state highways look like this:

 

[Helix]

I have been talking (via email) to a friend in Northland. They're okay where they are -- no direct damage although I reckon their nice trees will be leafless by now. They couldn't believe the rain. That's the thing about cyclones, tropical or extra-tropical: you think the clouds couldn't possibly hold any more rain -- and then the rainfall gets heavier. Every. Bloody. Time.

 

[MaeZe]

I drove through a tropical storm in Alabama once and I had to roll down the window to see the road. You could not see at all in front of the car, just a wall of water. It was daytime.

 

[Unimportant]

And then New Zealand thought, Hey! There's a part of this country that hasn't been munted by the hurricane. So that they don't feel left out, let's give them an earthquake!

Sigh.

Earthquake, massacre, eruption, plague, floods, earthquake.... It just keeps going round, eh?

 

[Unimportant]

Heh.

When asked how he felt about the quake Prime Minister Chris Hipkins said it was “unprintable”. “I was looking out the window for a plague of locusts.”

Not heh.

A man helping chopper crews pluck people from roofs in flood-hit Hawke’s Bay believes the death toll is likely worse than reported, having seen at least one body floating in water he could not reach.

On Wednesday, a young child was found dead in the wake of Cyclone Gabrielle and more than 1400 people have been reported uncontactable, police say.

 

[Unimportant]

The news continues dire: more deaths, more destruction. But, as a resource, if anyone every wants to write a story about returning home to inspect the damage caused by severe flooding (or just to practice your descriptive and emotive writing), these photos are utterly unbelievable.

 

[ElaineB]

I had no idea this was going on. Holy cow!