Footage shot from a helicopter has shown the devastating impacts of Cyclone Gabrielle on Hawke’s Bay.
The flooding remains so high in some places that just the very top of roofs can be seen.
Resident Paul Dechering told 1News the last 24 hours have been "disastrous".
"It's unbelievable really what the water can do, it's an enormous force that's behind the water."
"There's just so much momentum behind the debris that it just takes everything down, you can see all the silt on the floor, it looks like a beach."
Dechering said the landscape is "completely different" to what it was before the cyclone hit.
Hawke's Bay is one of the regions that's been hit the hardest by Cyclone Gabrielle, with 9000 people forced from their homes.
More than 300 people were rescued yesterday and one person died after a bank collapsed into a property.
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