This 37-minute video is going viral on the internet.
Cyclone Gabrielle has left a trail of devastation and human suffering in New Zealand. A live-streamed footage going viral on the internet shows workers stranded in Hawke’s Bay using refrigerators and mattresses to navigate the flood, BBC informed of.
In the video, people are seen floating on empty refrigerators and mattresses. The 37-minute video is going viral.
Watch the video here:
According to Stuff, a New Zealand-based news website, the workers were airlifted from the roof of their workplace in Fernhill, a suburb of Queenstown.
According to an AFP report, some 10,000 people are displaced, cities and towns are still without electricity and drinking water, and local government officials estimate that tens or hundreds of communities have yet to be contacted.
Prime Minister Chris Hipkins visited the Hawke’s Bay region on Friday and said “the whole country” is feeling for the affected communities.
“Some people are in a very critical condition.
“I ask people to continue, you know, we’ll get through this. We’ll come out on the other side of this. But it’s an extraordinarily challenging situation at the moment.”
Cyclone Gabriel formed off the northeast coast of Australia in the Coral Sea on 8 February before barreling into the South Pacific.
It made landfall on New Zealand’s north coast on Sunday, bringing winds of up to 140 kilometers (87 miles) per hour.
Over the next 24 hours, 20 centimeters (about eight inches) of rain fell on coastal communities and 11-metre (36-foot) waves.
Many parts of northern New Zealand were already water-logged when Cyclone Gabriel hit, drenched by record rain two weeks ago.
The National Metservice said Auckland Airport had received about half its annual average rainfall in the past 45 days.
Scientists say Cyclone Gabrielle harbored warm seas driven by climate change and La Nina weather patterns.
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