A fifth person has died in New Zealand after Hurricane Gabrielle caused the evacuation of 10,500 people, police announced on Thursday (February 15th).
The body of a fourth victim, a child believed to be "
caught by rising waters
", had previously been found in the village of Eksdale on the country's east coast, police said.
Three other people were found dead in areas affected by the cyclone: one where a firefighter was reported missing when a house collapsed during the stormy weather in West Auckland and two others in the Hawke's area Bay, in the North Island, according to the authorities.
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Torrential rains
The New Zealand Army has deployed three NH90 helicopters to the hard-hit Hawke's Bay area.
There they rescued workers, families or pets perched on sodden roofs to escape the rising waters.
Violent winds and torrential rains have affected the North Island where more than three quarters of the country's five million inhabitants live, causing floods and landslides.
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The authorities are beginning to measure the extent of the damage in isolated towns where floodwaters have washed away roads and cut communications.
Some 10,500 people have been displaced, the emergency management minister said, and 160,000 are without power, although power is gradually being restored.
Cyclone Gabrielle formed on February 8 off the northeast coast of Australia in the Coral Sea before crossing the South Pacific.
According to scientists, it fed on exceptionally warm seas, under the combined effect of climate change and the La Nina phenomenon, a meteorological anomaly.