Cyclone Gabrielle smashes New Zealand: 'The worst is yet to come'
Auckland is one of several North Island districts under a state of emergency as storms from the cyclone lash the north of New Zealand.
Cyclone Gabrielle is wreaking havoc on New Zealand's North Island causing flash flooding and wild winds as the the country's prime minister warns the worst is still to come.
After buffeting Australia’s Norfolk Island on the weekend, the category-two cyclone turned sub-tropical low reached New Zealand and on Monday several districts including New Zealand were under a state of emergency.
More than 30,000 homes have already lost power, as reported by Reuters, and flights have been cancelled as the wild weather picks up, bringing heavy rainfall and devastating winds.
“The most intense rain will be across the North Island so we could see totals well in excess of 100mm, possibly up towards 150 or 200mm across the northern parts,” the Weatherzone’s Angus Konta told Yahoo News Australia. “That includes Auckland as well.”
Damaging winds are also expected to smash the “exposed northern parts of the North Island”.
“Wind gusts will be spread across the North Island, even in southern parts where there's not likely to be as much rain we'll still see gale force winds up along the ranges there,” the meteorologist added.
“Down to the South Island we could see wind gusts around 70 to 80 kilometres [an hour] but towards the North Island we could see them exceeding 100 up towards 120km/h.”
The size of Cyclone Gabrielle is clear in this video.
Since noon, we're recorded gusts of 150 - 160 km/h, and some stations in Gisborne have recorded rain rates of 15 - 30mm in a single hour. pic.twitter.com/1dZ1A4dxEU— MetService (@MetService) February 13, 2023
Tuesday will be worse, PM says
While Prime Minister Chris Hipkins was stuck in Auckland on Monday, he will chair cabinet remotely, telling journalists on Monday morning that “the worst is yet to come”.
Mr Konta says it looks like the system could potentially make landfall over the North Island tomorrow and “very quickly”.
“There is a bit of uncertainty about this, I can't say for sure that it will make landfall, but if it does we'll see that rain continuing to intensify with the strongest winds along the west coast.”
New Zealand’s MetService has issued a range of warnings.
“Based on the position and intensity of Gabrielle, this system poses a VERY HIGH risk of extreme impacting and unprecedented weather over many regions of the North Island through to Tuesday,” it said online.
Panic buying sets in
While the Emergency Management Minister Kieran McAnulty has urged residents to finalise their preparations and hunker down, residents have reported empty shelves at supermarkets.
Photos and videos are emerging online of panicked locals queueing at checkouts after clearing out stock, while shelves sit empty of eggs and bread.
“It was crazy, I couldn’t get any bakery items which I went in for,” one person wrote on Facebook. “Saw [one] person [with] nearly half a trolley full of bakery items and [a] family member with a trolley full of toilet paper like it’s Covid again.”
“It’s reminiscent of the day before we all went into lockdown back in 2020!” said another. “People were definitely panicking,” someone else commented, “and very rude and pushy".
While Mr McAnulty told media on Monday morning that “we're encouraging people to only get what they need”.
“In an event like this, three days should be enough,” he said.
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