Sharjah24 - Reuters: Ten days after the deadliest storm to hit New Zealand in decades, search and rescue officials said on Thursday that the number of persons still missing in the wake of Cyclone Gabrielle is now in the single digits.
Gabrielle killed at least 11 people and caused widespread damage across the North Island, hitting the farming, wine and fruit region of Hawke's Bay on the east coast particularly hard.
Hawke's Bay Urban Search and Rescue (USAR) team leader Ken Cooper told TVNZ's Breakfast show that search and rescue conditions were arduous.
"It's something that I've never seen before, very challenging for our search crews and the community, however it's the responsibility of our crews and we'll carry out those searches to the best of our ability," Cooper said.
As of Thursday morning, "we are down to single figures" in terms of the numbers of people still unaccounted for in Hawke's Bay, he said.
USAR teams together with police and dog units were searching several remote communities on Thursday, Cooper said.
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