Cyclone Gabrielle is hammering northern New Zealand just weeks after deadly storms dumped record-breaking amounts of rain on the region. The new prime minister described the storm as “probably the biggest we’ve seen in recent times,” and the government has declared its third-ever national state of emergency. No deaths have been officially recorded, but with searches for residents and lost rescuers halted by the dangerous conditions, that is likely to change. Gabrielle floodwaters also knocked out power for tens of thousands of people and the national grid operator warned it may not be restored “for days to weeks, rather than hours.”
“This is climate change,” James Shaw, the government’s climate change minister, told Parliament. “We cannot put our heads in the sand when the beach is flooding. We must act now.” (Washington Post $, The Guardian, Axios, Wall Street Journal $, The Guardian, BBC; Climate Signals background: Hurricanes, Typhoons and Cyclones)