WELLINGTON (Reuters) -- New Zealand declared a
national state of emergency for only the third time in its history on Tuesday as Cyclone Gabrielle caused widespread flooding, landslides and huge ocean swells, forcing evacuations and stranding people on roof tops.
Cancelled flights stranded thousands of people, while hundreds of thousands remained without power.
“The severity and the breadth of the damage that we are seeing has not been experienced in a generation,” Prime Minister Chris Hipkins told a news conference on Tuesday.
Australia and Britain had pledged support, he added.
At 6 p.m. (0500 GMT) Gabrielle had moved southeast of Auckland, near the east coast of the country’s North Island, and was expected to continue moving southeast, roughly parallel to the coast. Weather warnings remained in place for much of the east coast of the North Island and upper South Island.
About 225,000 people were left without electricity, while dozens of supermarkets closed, with Hipkins urging New Zealanders not to panic-buy supplies.
Architect Lars von Minden, 50, lives in Muriwai, a beach town on the coast west of Auckland.
“I’ve seldom seen anything like it,” he told Reuters by phone. “There are three or four areas where there are just these massive slips, some of them 300 meters (1,000 feet) across, that have come down, taking out houses and roads and everything.”
Kieran McAnulty, minister of emergency management, said that while New Zealand was now through the worst of the storm, more rain and high winds were expected.
The country was suffering from extensive flooding, landslides and damage to roads and infrastructure, he added.
Transmission companies around the country reported damage to substations and power networks.
Authorities have evacuated beach settlements and are urging still more people to leave homes as rivers continue to swell and huge surf inundates beachfront properties.
Roads are closed, mobile phone services down and some towns cut off. Residents in hard-hit areas are being asked to conserve water and food because of fears of shortages. Air New Zealand restarted some flights in and out of Auckland, though many routes remained disrupted.