New Zealand declares national emergency

AUCKLAND: Cyclone Gabrielle swept away roads, inundated homes and left 225,000 people without power in New Zealand on Tuesday, as a national state of emergency was declared.

High winds and driving rain lashed the country´s populous North Island, in what Prime Minister Chris Hipkins called the “most significant weather event New Zealand has seen in this century”.

“The impact is significant and it is widespread,” he said. “The severity and the damage that we are seeing has not been experienced in a generation.” Daylight Tuesday revealed the severity of the disaster: roads eaten away by landslips and collapsed homes buried in mud, silt and a slew of storm detritus.