New Zealand Prime Minister Chris Hipkins reported eight deaths due to Cyclone Gabrielle on Friday. He cautioned that this figure was likely to rise as rescuers reconnected with hundreds of isolated villages.
New Zealand's upper North Island was slammed by the Cyclone Gabrielle on Sunday, and as it moved down the east coast, it severed townships, swept away farms and bridges, killed cattle, and flooded houses, leaving many stranded on roofs.
PM Hipkins remarked that authorities "need to brace themselves" for the possibility of "more fatalities" throughout New Zealand, as per a Reuters report.
"The true extent of that, we won't know for a while," PM Chris Hipkins said.
The police reported 4,500 people missing since the New Zealand cyclone on Friday afternoon. Authorities think most of them lack communication networks.
The New Zealand Defense Force has sent two big ships, a C-130 Hercules cargo jet, and many mobile water treatment units to the hardest-hit districts, Al Jazeera reported.
Helicopters have been utilized to drop aid and pick up trapped citizens by the hundreds.
Tens of Thousands Remain Without Power
Napier was again isolated on Thursday after specialists discovered damage to the last bridge connecting the town of 65,000 people to the rest of New Zealand.
Although 80,000 households on the island had power restored by Wednesday, over 140,000 residents remained without access to electricity, according to BBC.
Due to concerns about shortages, residents in hard-hit regions are also being urged to practice water and food conservation.
New Zealand declared a National State of Emergency, the country's third in history, on Tuesday, according to a previous HNGN report.
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