Hipkins said it was now seven days after the cyclone had passed through and the true extent of the devastation and loss was becoming clearer with every passing day.

“Lives have been turned upside down, many people have seen their homes and all their possessions completely destroyed,” he told a media briefing in Wellington late yesterday.

Countless others have been displaced, tragically so far 11 people have lost their lives, and more fatalities remain possible.”

He said 28,000 homes remained without power.

“Telecommunications have been severely disrupted, fresh water is in short supply in some areas and roads have been badly damaged, limiting access to some areas and causing significant delays in others,” he said.

He said supply chains had been disrupted and moving goods around had been “incredibly challenging”.

“Crops have been badly damaged, many completely destroyed.”

Death toll 11
Earlier yesterday, police confirmed two further deaths relating to the cyclone, bringing the total to 11.

Hipkins today paid tribute to emergency services and first responders, who had done New Zealand proud.

Watch the media briefing

Video: RNZ News

“Many have worked themselves to utter exhaustion. The stress and strain of the last week is clearly starting to show, and particularly in places where power and communications remains disrupted, we know that tensions can be high.”

He said nobody should underestimate the psychological toll this disaster was taking on some New Zealanders.

“The past week has pushed many to their limit, even more so given it comes on top of other weather events, the disruption of a global pandemic and too many other significant and disruptive challenges to mention — our resilience is being tested like never before,” Hipkins said.

“But as we’ve repeatedly seen in recent times, adversity brings out the best in Kiwis. We rally together and we support each other.

“We look out for our neighbours, we go the extra mile to protect the vulnerable, we share and we care. ”

The Australian emergency responders announced on Friday they were supporting Fire & Emergency NZ with a 27-person impact assessment team and Hipkins said 25 of them were already on the ground in the Hawke’s Bay, with two supporting the national co-ordination centre.

He said Aotearoa had also accepted an offer of support from Fiji — 10 personnel from their defence force, four fire authority crew and four national disaster management officials were preparing to leave for New Zealand in the coming days.

Crucial satellite imagery
He added that the United States and Australia — through the New Zealand Defence Force — had provided crucial satellite imagery products of the affected areas.

“And we’re in the final stages of working to accept an offer from the Australian Defence Force who will support the New Zealand Defence Force with a C-130 transport aircraft, air load teams to rig freight on the aircraft and environmental health staff to assist in analysing health risks.

“All of this will be a great help and we thank Fiji and the United States as we thank Australia.”

Hipkins said making a monetary donation was the single most helpful thing people can do in the wake of the cyclone to support those disrupted communities, because “that enables the support organisations to [require] what is needed in those communities”.

He said there was no doubt that New Zealand had a steep mountain ahead of it.

Tough calls
“Our attention over the past week has been focused on the initial emergency response, rescuing those stranded, restoring lifelines and removing hazards. In some areas that still remains very much the focus, in other areas though, recovery is starting to get underway,” Hipkins said.

“As the shape of the damage and the need becomes clearer we’ll be able to shape our response accordingly.

“We know that this will come with a big price tag and we will have to once again reprioritise and refocus our efforts and our resources. We will build back better, but we will also need to build back more resilient than before.”

He said the country had underinvested in infrastructure for far too long and that had to change.

“If we’re going to build back better and if we’re going to build back quickly, some tough calls will need to be made, and I’m absolutely committed to doing that.”

This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.

Article by AsiaPacificReport.nz

Cyclone Gabrielle was battering parts of the North Island of Aotearoa New Zealand with strong winds and heavy rain last night.

Most of the North Island is covered by some kind of Severe Weather Watch or Warning either for wind, rain or both.

Red heavy rain warnings have been issued for Northland, Auckland, the Coromandel and the northern parts of Gisborne Tairāwhiti.

Red strong wind warnings have been issued for Northland, Auckland and the Coromandel.

Vector said at 7pm 15,000 households in the Auckland area were without power last night.

“Our crews are responding as quickly and safely as they can, given the current weather conditions,” said a spokesperson.

Cyclone Gabrielle covering all of the North Island as of 7:20pm today. pic.twitter.com/niRd0Z1vrn

— Australasia From Space (@AussieFromSpace) February 12, 2023

Auckland Harbour Bridge closed
In the Coromandel Peninsula, about 11,000 homes were without power.

The storm has cut supply in Port Charles, Waikawau, Manaia, Tairua, Cooks Beach and parts of Whitianga.

Electricity has also been cut to Paeroa on the Hauraki Plains and Pururi, just south of Thames.

The Auckland Harbour Bridge remained closed overnight due to high winds.

Waka Kotahi made the decision to close the bridge just after 3:30pm yesterday afternoon, which was met with criticism from motorists.

National Emergency Response spokesperson Mark Owen said that while safety was its priority, closing the bridge was very challenging.

The bridge will remain closed until further notice.

Self-evacuations in Gisborne
Many families in Gisborne left their homes voluntarily ahead of the severe wind and rain.

Cyclone Gabrielle was set to reach Gisborne last night, bringing gale-force winds and nine metre storm surges and heavy rain.

Up to 450mm was forecast north of Tolaga Bay before Tuesday.

RNZ will continue live coverage from 5am Monday morning and update any major developments overnight.

This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.

Article by AsiaPacificReport.nz

Papua New Guinea began New Year 2023 with sizzling fireworks that lit up the skies.

But our hopes of shrugging off the “power blackout” tag ended just as the year was a few hours old.

An hour into New Year celebrations in the capital Port Moresby, like a perennial remnant, the inevitable popped like a fireworks flare gone bonkers — resulting in an inkiness that lasted into the wee hours of the morning.

Eleven days into the year, black outs are holding businesses and people to ransom across the country, prompting PNG Power Limited CEO Obed Batia to address the root cause of the constant outages.

According to Batia, the reasons range from aging equipment to high rainfall, vegetation that overwhelms power lines, the refusal of customers to allow PNG Power to trim vegetation and access powerlines, and low diesel fuel.

The creepy crawlies like snakes, rats and bats that can spark a major outage by squatting illegally in a transmitter don’t even rate a mention.

Batia said overgrown trees near power lines are some of the biggest contributors to blackouts, and the refusal of customers to allow PPL workers to cut down these trees add to the problem in many parts of the country.

Resisting cutting trees
He said: “Many customers resist PNG Power officers from cutting the trees and clearing of the vegetation within their properties. We are working with external parties to control this.”

Lae PPL office refused to answer questions asked by the Post-Courier about blackouts in Morobe.

In Goroka, a blackout lasted from Jan 6-8 for 48 hours, coming on for only 30 mins and going off again.

Frustrated consumers urged PNG Power to come clear on why the blackout was continuing.

Chamber of Commerce president Chris Anders said the blackout comes as “the risk of having your business or home broken into” had escalated as criminals took advantage of the blackouts, as they normally hit in the early hours of the morning.

“The lack of announcements from PNG Power on what they are doing to fix the power supply is deafening,” Anders said.

PPL said: “The Power Transformer at Himitovi Substation in Goroka which caters for the Goroka load experienced a technical fault on Friday around 2am.

“The issue was rectified at 7pm on Saturday night and power fully restored for Goroka customers.”

Without power for 8 days
Along the North Coast Road in Madang, a community has been without power for eight days with requests receiving responses that never were followed up by PPL.

Batia said that rainfalls have attributed to low water levels at Yonki and Ramu will see continued load shedding in Madang and Highlands while Lae has been assured of supply from Taraka, Mildford Power Stations, Baiune Power Station in Bulolo and the Munum IPP.

“In Port Moresby, recent system outages were experienced due to technical issues between all generation power stations both at PNG Power and the Independent Power Producers (IPPs),” he said.

“We are working together with our IPP stakeholders to ensure we correct those issues with respect grid control and regulation issues, in order to provide stable power.

“All Highlands centres and Madang have their standby power stations which supplement the load.

“There has been little increase in the water level but not to a capacity for the Ramu Hydropower Station to generate to full capacity yet.

Back to normal for Kokopo
“Gazelle grid has stopped load shedding and the system is back to normal for Kokopo, Rabaul and Kerevat customers,” Batia added.

“In all other provincial centres who run on diesel fuel power stations, our challenge is ensuring our fuel suppliers get supply to our power stations on time.

“When there is late supply, our teams resort to load shedding, which is conserving fuel until the next supply of fuel is delivered.

“Discussions are ongoing with our fuel suppliers to ensure we have an understanding on time supply for our diesel power stations.”

Miriam Zarriga is a PNG Post-Courier reporter. Republished with permission.

Article by AsiaPacificReport.nz