Prime Minister Chris Hipkins has announced a special fundraising appeal and Lotto draw on March 18 to help North Island regions devastated by the recent Cyclone Gabrielle.
The announcement came after the new Extreme Weather Response Committee met for the first time this afternoon. The appeal was based on the 2011 Christchurch earthquake appeal, which raised nearly $100 million.
The national state of emergency will continue - especially for Tairawhiti and Hawke’s Bay. Other regions would be moving onto the recovery phase.
A factor in that decision would be forecast weather for the next week or so, with MetService warning of further heavy rain and the possibility of tropical cyclones developing and tracking towards New Zealand.
The fundraising appeal would be overseen by a charitable trust, the Department of Internal Affairs chief executive Paul James, former Napier mayor Barbara Arnott and Ngati Porou's Selwyn Ngata would be the trustees. It would focus on medium to longer term recovery projects that ensure the region was "built back better and with greater resilience, better prepared to withstand the next extreme weather event".
Hipkins said it would add to the fundraisers already under way and they would be looking for international donations to supplement those from New Zealand. Facebook had offered to promote the appeal.
"I feel a real sense of unity in the aftermath of the cyclone and it's heart-warming to see so many donations and other offers of assistance already. Every little bit does make a difference."
People who wanted to make a small donation immediately can text 'give' to 2454. All trading banks will accept over the counter donations.
• More information can be found here at cyclone appeal.
Meanwhile, the number of households still without power was 2900, mostly in and around Napier. There were 80 people sheltering in a civil defence centre. The death toll was unchanged at 11 and four people were still unaccounted for.
The Prime Minister said the Government would stand “shoulder to shoulder” with businesses and householders affected.
“Recovery is not a job we can do alone, so today we are looking for support from our friends."
Cyclone Gabrielle was estimated to have cause more destruction to businesses and infrastructure since Cyclone Bola in 1988, he said, and the recovery cost was likely to be in the billions of dollars.
Hipkins acknowledged there was a huge job to work out how to rebuild damaged infrastructure. Up to 9000 homes have had to be assessed and as many as 1800 households in Auckland were expected to need temporary accommodation.
Eight sections of the state highway remained closed, down from 21 a week ago. At the peak of the massive storm, 400km of state highway were shut and the number of sections of local road was expected to far surpass that, he said.
The mobile network was largely back to normal.
More than 40,000 insurance claims were registered as of two weeks ago, with the number expected to rise. More than $51 million has been paid out to 94,000 in civil defence payments.
Just after the cyclone hit there were 296 schools and 477 early childhood centres closed; there were now 25 schools and 62 ECE shut.
Support for businesses
Cyclone Recovery Minister Grant Robertson yesterday said further announcements on government support for businesses were likely.
One of the pressing issues for many businesses is continuing to pay staff while they cannot operate.
Robertson said redeployment of those staff was one option and the Government was in talks with the largest employers about how to best support them.
So far the Government has set up a quick-response $50 million fund, split between the primary sector and small and medium businesses. The latter provides for grants of up to $40,000 for those businesses to use on clean-up costs, or as cashflow to contend with supply chain breakdowns or an inability to serve their customers.
Visa applications for skilled workers were being fast-tracked.
Temporary Accommodation Service
Housing Minister Megan Woods this morning announced that the Temporary Accommodation Service had been set up to help the thousands whose homes are inhabitable while they rebuild or repair.
However, she warned that because of the scale of the disaster, it could take some time for all those who needed it to be given accommodation. About 1200 to 1800 were expected to use that service in Auckland - the numbers from the other affected regions are likely to be higher.
If that demand is too high for the available accommodation, one option was to set up cyclone villages with modular homes or relocated cabin, as happened in Christchurch after the devastating and deadly quake in February 2011.
Census to run as planned
Hipkins confirmed that Census 2023 would continue as planned on March 7.
Follow-up activities for regions most affected by the cyclone would be delayed until it was safe to do. The period for these had been extended by a further eight weeks, he said. This would allow for 2500 census staff to remain out in the field with a focus on those regions.
Areas most affected by the cyclone were among the communities most under-served by the 2018 census, Hipkins said.
"That makes the data collection in 2023 all the more important and that's why we decided to extend the time period for those regions."
- NZ Herald and RNZ
