Cyclone Gabrielle wreaks havoc across New Zealand’s North Island as evacuations continue

New Zealand prime minister Chris Hipkins has warned the worst is yet to come as Cyclone Gabrielle sparks evacuations, rising flood waters and power outages across the North Island.

“Things are likely to get worse before they get better,” Hipkins said. “Extreme weather event has come on the back of extreme weather event.”

The cyclone has hit an already-waterlogged region, much of it still recovering from devastating flooding a fortnight ago.

Communities in coastal regions continued their evacuations on Monday, with concerns that a midnight high tide and storm surges would coincide with the worst of the storm. Hipkins warned communities not covered by evacuation orders to “be prepared, stay inside if you can, and have a plan in the event that you need to move”.

The low pressure weather system was creating storm surges – a phenomenon whereby overall sea levels rise, independent of wave height, inundating coastal areas.

New Zealand’s National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research (Niwa) announced a “record” storm surge of 0.7m, in addition to waves of up to 12m off the northern coast.

Mandatory evacuations were ordered along the entire eastern Bay of Plenty coastline – an area covering about 400 homes – as well as for 100 homes in the Whakatāne district in the Bay of Plenty region.

The Ōpōtiki district council incident controller, Gerard McCormack, told Radio New Zealand the worst of the cyclone was due to hit around the same time as high tide in the middle of the night.

“We’re expecting large sea swells, inundation. The rain is coming now,” he said.

Elsewhere, councils asked those in vulnerable areas to evacuate themselves. In the coastal city of Whangārei, the council urged residents of the central business district to self-evacuate, saying the entire area was vulnerable to flooding.

By Monday afternoon, almost all of the top half of the North Island was covered by localised states of emergencyincluding in Auckland – New Zealand’s largest city of 1.7 million people – as well as in Northland, Coromandel, Ōpōtiki, Whakatāne, Tairāwhiti and Hauraki.

About 46,000 homes, mostly in Northland, remained without power. Power companies said the conditions were highly challenging as the storm continued, with trees falling through lines and blocking roads. National forecaster MetService said it had broken its record for “red” weather warnings issued around the country, and wind gusts of 150-160km/h were recorded.

As evacuation centres prepared food and clothing packages on Monday afternoon, the government announced an extra $11.5m in funding for cyclone relief – much of it to be distributed to community groups and providers, as well as food banks and disability services. Announcing the funds, Hipkins said 25,000 people already needed assistance with food, clothing, shelter, bedding and accommodation.

“Our social service agencies are stretched to capacity,” he said. “Many people just haven’t been able to catch a break … People have lost their homes and their vehicles, families are facing additional challenges getting children back to school. And many families will be facing anxiety and distress.

“The need in the community is significant, and the effect of the repeated weather events has compounded that.”