Cyclone Gabrielle: Anxious wait for Great Barrier Island residents

By RNZ

While some parts of the country wait for the worst of the weather to hit, residents on Aotea Great Barrier Island are already hunkered down.

Cyclone Gabrielle is forecast to come very close to the island early on Tuesday morning and severe wind and rain have already set in.

Local board chair Izzy Fordham told Morning Report the weather on the island was already “rough and raw”, with big waves, rain, wind and very low visibility.

“Some of the gusts are quite strong,” she said.

“We had a little bit of surface flooding yesterday, and of course the seas are rough and rugged, so that’s pushing the water back up our creeks and estuaries.”

Waiting for the cyclone to hit was the worst part, she said.

“It’s quite anxious when you’re sitting around just waiting, waiting ... we’re just waiting to see now what Gabrielle will unleash.”

Fordham said the board had been tracking the cyclone and getting local emergency response systems in place over the past few days.

Only a couple of residents who lived in low-lying areas had self-evacuated so far, she said.

“We’re continuing with our island-based comms, as well as picking up what Auckland Emergency Management are putting out ... we are in contact with them regularly.”

Plane and ferry services to Aotea had been stopped since yesterday, but prior to that, both Sealink and Barrier Air had “done incredibly well” to get people on and off the island and to bring in freight and food supplies, she said.

It was now a matter of “wait and see” for the island’s residents.

“We’ve done pretty much all that we can possibly do now.”