Thousands of people have been evacuated this Monday in several localities of the Coromandel Peninsula, in the North Island of New Zealand, due to floods caused by the arrival of cyclone ‘Gabrielle’, with no reports of fatalities so far.
New Zealand authorities have indicated that flooding in the area has «totally compromised» the road network, amid rising waves in the coastal area that have led to the evacuation of residents in Whitianga and Cooks Beach.
Residents in the town of Hahei have also been evacuated due to a landslide, while it is expected that river levels could peak in the coming hours, as reported by ‘The New Zealand Herald’.
The head of Civil Defense in the Coromandel district, Garry Towler, has acknowledged that the cyclone «is starting to have an impact» and has confirmed power outages in several parts of the peninsula, with the most severe damage expected in the next 20 hours.
«We’re on our knees right now, this could be a major blow,» he warned, after authorities declared a state of emergency in eight regions of the North Island, including Auckland, amid fears of further flooding and landslides.
In this regard, the mayor of Auckland, Wayne Brown, has stressed that the next 24 hours will be complicated and has asked residents to remain vigilant. The Army is supporting evacuation and rescue efforts.
Meanwhile, Top Energy power company chief executive Russell Shaw has indicated that «Cyclone ‘Gabrielle’ is hitting hard, with more days of heavy rain and strong winds ahead.» «They’re down, trees, poles and lines,» he has lamented.
«Large parts of the grid are rural, making it difficult to access for crews who have to portage equipment for repairs,» he has noted. «We also have to take into account the safety of our teams and we will not send them in unsafe conditions,» he stressed.
Source: (EUROPA PRESS)
