New Zealand authorities expect to make the final rescues Wednesday after a cyclone brought extensive flooding and landslides that claimed at least four lives.
In this image released by the New Zealand Defense Force on Wednesday, Feb. 15, people stand on a rooftop of a home waiting to be winched to safety by helicopter in the Esk Valley, near Napier, New Zealand. The government declared a national state of emergency Tuesday after Cyclone Gabrielle battered the country's north in what officials described as the nation's most severe weather event in years.
said it was unclear how many people remained unaccounted for, with several communities still isolated by floodwaters, landslides and telecommunications outages. He said 1,111 people had been reported found by Wednesday, which would cancel out some of those reported uncontactable. Around 9,000 people have been forced from their homes since Monday.
"The feedback that we've had is that those seven that are still outstanding, all of the people concerned are safe," Hipkins said.Along with rescues, the government was prioritizing restoring power and telecommunications as well as delivering food, water and medicine to where it was needed, Hipkins said.
British King Charles III's sister Princess Anne visited New Zealand's disaster management headquarters in the capital, Wellington, on Wednesday and praised the nation's response. Her visit to New Zealand was scheduled before the cyclone struck.
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