NAPIER, New Zealand: A New Zealand mum has recounted the heartbreak of watching her two-year-old daughter being swept away in floodwaters unleashed by Cyclone Gabrielle, whose death toll rose to eight on Friday (Feb 17).
The storm has faded into the South Pacific but has left a trail of destruction and human suffering across New Zealand’s North Island.
About 10,000 people are displaced, cities and towns are still without power and drinking water, and local government officials estimate tens or even hundreds of communities have yet to be contacted.
Details are only gradually emerging about the scale of the disaster and the horrors endured by survivors such as Ella Louise Collins.
Collins, her husband and two kids were trapped in their one-storey home in the hard-hit Hawke’s Bay region when the floodwaters arrived.
“The water was about 10 centimetres from the ceiling in our house and rose extremely quickly and violently,” Collins wrote in a Facebook post on Thursday.
The family of four tried to escape to the safety of a neighbour’s roof, but were stopped by what she called “a sudden torrent of water which almost drowned us all”.
In the chaos, two-and-a-half-year-old Ivy was swept away and drowned. Collins said “she died very quickly”.
“Please give us time while we ground ourselves and navigate this impossible time.”
Prime Minister Chris Hipkins toured the Hawke’s Bay region on Friday, saying “the whole country” was feeling for communities affected.
“There are some people who are in a very, very fragile state.”
“I just ask people to keep going, you know, we will get through this. We will come out the other side of it. But it is an exceptionally challenging circumstance at the moment.”
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