NEW ZEALAND: New Zealand’s largest city, Auckland, faced one of the world’s biggest disasters after being hit by a tornado two months after it was affected by Cyclone Gabrielle. Three months earlier, Auckland suffered the pangs of devastating floods. On Sunday at 9 p.m., Auckland’s Emergency Management claims to have gotten “localised havoc” reports where the authorities received nearly 30 calls of house destruction complaints.
The firefighters helped the people in the area put tarps over their roofs for the night. David McKeown, Fire and Emergency Incident Controller, mentioned that the most vulnerable places suffering havoc are situated in a total of 11 streets from Golflands to East Tamaki.
In the 12 hours from 6 a.m. on Monday, New Zealand was struck by nearly 14,000 lightning strikes, as recorded by the Met Service, which also predicted that the South Island would face more disasters in the form of heavy rain and thunderstorms.
On Monday, another tornado was reported to strike the Upper Moutere region, per the police, that caused approximately 12 houses utter destruction, blowing roofs off and having them lifted. Power issues were also reported by residents.
The “biggest climate event” that took place in January in Auckland and killed four people caused landslides and the destruction of highways, affecting the Auckland Airport as well. Weeks later, Cyclone Gabrielle killed 11 people, leaving a lot of people distraught.
Chris Hipkins, New Zealand’s Prime Minister, called this a national state of emergency, highlighting that the disaster was “the most significant weather event New Zealand has seen in this century”.
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