Gabrielle moves into New Zealand’s area of responsibility for weather advisories. Nearly all of the North Island is issued with weather watches.  

The storm’s winds have knocked power out for tens of thousands of properties across Auckland and Northland. Rain continues to fall throughout the day, flooding already soaked areas and closing roads.  

But these issues would soon pale in comparison to the horrors the cyclone would unleash later in the day. 

10am 

A state of emergency is declared in Tairāwhiti as MetService issues a red heavy rain warning for northern Gisborne and an orange heavy rain warning for the rest of the area.  

Other areas follow suit in declaring a state of emergency throughout the day – Ōpōtiki, Whakatāne, the Waikato district, and the Hauraki district.   

The Government holds off on declaring a national state of emergency, however. Prime Minister Chris Hipkins says “the threshold for a national emergency has not been met”.  

Many roads are closed across the North Island as slips and flooding sweep across them. Rail lines in Auckland and further down the North Island are closed.  

3.40pm 

MetService issues a red warning for heavy rain for Hawke’s Bay. Two hours later, the entire Gisborne district is also under red weather warnings for wind and rain.  

6.15pm 

A MetService rain radar shows most of the North Island is experiencing significant rainfall. 

10.35pm  

River levels across Tairāwhiti are rising, prompting Civil Defence to issue an urgent flood warning. Residents in low-lying areas are told to move to higher ground – now. 

11pm  

Back in Auckland, reports are coming in of a big slip at Piha with residents forced from their homes. One resident takes to Twitter to say “biblical amounts” of rain are falling. 

As midnight approaches, fire crews attend a house collapse in Muriwai.  

Two firefighters are caught in a slip while investigating flooding at a house on Motutara Road. One of them is found and taken to hospital in a critical condition.  

It would prove to be a long, terrifying night for the many people caught in the storm’s path. 

12.40am  

Residents in Ormond are told to evacuate to higher ground immediately due to concerns over the Waipaoa River which has reached 8.2 metres at Kanakanaia.  

1.30am  

Back in Auckland, residents in parts of Muriwai are asked to evacuate, too.  

4.31am 

The mayors in Napier and Hastings District sign a declaration of a local state of emergency. This is later widened to include the entire Hawke’s Bay region.  

5.45am 

An emergency alert is sent for Esk Valley in Hawke’s Bay. 

“There is serious flooding in the Esk Valley from the Esk River, which is still rising," it says. "LEAVE NOW if you are in a low-lying area near the Esk River in Bay View." 

8.43am 

A national state of emergency is declared for just the third time in New Zealand’s history. The previous times were for the 2011 Christchurch earthquakes and the Covid-19 pandemic.  

Meanwhile, the Wairoa River has burst its banks and inundated the homes of about half of those living in Wairoa. The town, located between Gisborne and Napier, is cut off as roads and the Mohaka Bridge become impassable.  

9.30am 

More than 40 households are trapped due to flooding in Eskdale. A group of orchard workers have also scrambled on to rooftops in Hawke’s Bay to escape the rising flood waters. Hundreds of others are rescued from rooftops around the region, with some having to spend hours waiting for help. 

12.05pm 

Transpower declares a “grid emergency” as Hawke’s Bay and Gisborne lose power.  

"Due to the current situation, we are not able to obtain communications from our substation, but it is likely the Redclyffe substation is under water," it says.  

12.30pm 

Around 300 homes at Auckland’s Bethells Beach are completely cut off as slips close the only road in and out of the area. 

6pm 

Large swathes of the North Island are reeling in Cyclone Gabrielle’s wake.  

Evacuations and rescues are taking place across much of Hawke’s Bay, while large areas of Napier, Hastings and their surrounds are without any power or communications.  

Wairoa is completely isolated due to the loss of roads into the area. There are concerns over food and water supplies in the community, so authorities make an urgent request for supplies to be flown into the area.  

Northland is largely cut off from the rest of the country with multiple slips along State Highway 1 and flooding affecting State Highway 16 and State Highway 14.  

Large areas of the Coromandel are also without power and many highways in the area are closed.  

LIVES LOST

Details also begin to emerge of those who died trying to escape rising floodwaters. 

John Coates, a 64-year-old farmer who had spent his whole life in the Tairāwhiti region, died after floodwaters surged around his home in Te Karaka.  

“It went from ankle deep to vehicles floating in 20 minutes,” his son, Chris Coates, told the NZ Herald. 

Two-year-old Ivy Collins died as her family attempted to flee the floodwaters that engulfed their Eskdale home in the middle of the night.  

Ivy’s mother, Ella Collins, was carrying her daughter on her shoulders when little Ivy was swept away. 

“The water just came up behind me ... and it just lifted Ivy off my shoulders and I went under the water,” she said. “When I came up, I could just see her floating away.” 

Marie Green, 59, died in her home when the Tūtaekurī River burst its banks and flooded through the settlement of Puketapu where she lived.  

Ian McLauchlan, 76, also died after being caught in floodwaters in Waiohiki. 

Susane Caccioppoli, a 55-year-old cancer survivor, died after floodwaters swept through an Esk Valley home she was house-sitting at the time.  

Shona Wilson, 59, died after a slip buried part of her home in the middle of the night in Tūtira, near Napier. Her partner, Bill Chrystal, dug through the slip for six hours, hoping to rescue her.  

Brendan Miller, 43, died after his work truck was caught in floodwaters.  

George Luke and his partner were caught in a slip while driving to Hastings from Rotorua. The pair were eventually found and evacuated to hospital, where Luke died. His son, former Kiwis league star Issac Luke, paid tribute to his dad on social media, describing him as “my first hero”.  

The sheer scale of the damage from Cyclone Gabrielle becomes ever clearer today, with road networks smashed, power and communications down for hundreds of thousands, and homes, farms and orchards buried under silt.  

Food growers in Hawke’s Bay are asking for government help after their entire crops are wiped out.  

Coromandel communities, including Tairua and Pauanui, have spent their third day without electricity. There are also concerns over the water supply there. 

11.25am 

A body is found in the search for missing volunteer firefighter Dave van Zwanenberg in Muriwai, Auckland. The 41-year-old is described as someone who was dedicated to his family and local community.  

8.40pm 

Rationing of critical supplies begins in Gisborne, as stocks of these begin to run low and roads into the area remain closed.  

Large parts of Tairāwhiti are still without phone or internet coverage, as emergency services focus on tracking down the hundreds of people still not accounted for.  

More stories of narrow escapes emerge. Jason Syms described how quickly his Puketapu home became submerged at the height of the storm.  

“It was biblical,” he said. "I started to hear a ‘glug glug’ type noise. I went back into the bathroom and looked outside, you couldn’t see anything but the sea.” 

A Napier resident described seeing trees falling along the banks of the Tūtaekurī River as the floodwaters burst forth. 

"I'd never seen anything like it. It looks like we've had an apocalypse, looks like we've had a giant bomb going off. I can't believe it." 

In Te Karaka, residents spoke to Breakfast co-host Jenny-May Clarkson about how the speed in which floodwaters engulfed their homes. 

"The water was swift. My house filled up within, like, five minutes," one of them said. 

"We just watched it unfold in front of us. And watched our town basically get drowned," another said. 

The death toll rises, as Helen Street dies in Onekawa “in circumstances related to Cyclone Gabrielle”. The 86-year-old had been dependent on an oxygen machine at home.  

10.45pm 

The second firefighter caught in the Muriwai landslide dies in hospital. Craig Stevens, a 39-year-old father of two, had been critically injured in the same slip that killed Dave van Zwanenberg. 

THE AFTERMATH

Then-Prime Minister Chris Hipkins described Cyclone Gabrielle as “the most significant weather event New Zealand has seen this century”. 

“The severity and the damage … has not been experienced in a generation.” 

The cyclone took 11 lives and caused billions of dollars’ worth of damage to properties and infrastructure.  

One year on, many of the people and communities who were affected by Cyclone Gabrielle are still picking up the pieces of those broken homes and businesses.  

CREDITS

Satellite images: https://himawari8.nict.go.jp/