New Zealand declares emergency in North Island as Cyclone Gabrielle eases

The New Zealand government declared a state of emergency Tuesday across the country's North Island, which has been battered by Cyclone Gabrielle. The declaration enables the government to support six regions where local emergencies had already been declared and provide additional resources, Emergency Management Minister Kieran McAnulty said. The country was lashed by intense rainfall overnight that forced evacuations and brought widespread flooding, power outages and road closures. "This is a significant disaster with a real threat to the lives of New Zealanders," McAnulty told reporters in the capital Wellington. The state of emergency applies to the country's largest city Auckland, as well as the regions of Northland, Tairawhiti, Bay of Plenty, Waikato and Hawke's Bay. A weather station in the Hawke's Bay and Napier region had recorded three times more rain overnight than what usually falls for the entire month of February, MetService meteorologist Lewis Ferris said. "It's goin

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