New Zealand has declared a national state of emergency for only the third time in its history on Tuesday as Cyclone Gabrielle caused widespread flooding, landslides and huge ocean swells, forcing evacuations and stranding people on rooftops.
Canceled flights stranded thousands of people, while hundreds of thousands remained without power.
“The severity and the breadth of the damage that we are seeing has not been experienced in a generation,” Prime Minister Chris Hipkins told a news conference on Tuesday.
