Helicopter rescues are continuing in Hastings as the Hawke's Bay city continues to battle high levels of surface flooding left behind by Cyclone Gabrielle.
Speaking to Seven Sharp this evening, Hastings mayor Sandra Hazelhurst said the devastation across the region was incredible and "really sad".
"People are traumatised and there's a lot of work to do."
Hazelhurst said helicopters were continuing to rescue stranded residents around the city.
"Right as we speak actually we can hear the helicopters overhead rescuing people. Over 300 now have been rescued but there's certainly more to come.
"Our whole focus is on the welfare and making sure our community is safe."
With power and communication lines down and roads blocked, Hazelhurst said it had made rescue efforts incredibly difficult.
"Not having the internet has been so hard. A lot of our people we can't even reach to come into work. The connection between Hastings and Napier has been down, we've been isolated, so it's been a very, very tough 48 hours, but there's still more to go," she said.
Parts of the district have had power resumed, although there were still around 30 outages around the district, Hazelhurst said.
The mayor urged residents to stay home tonight and avoid driving, as well as conserving water.
"Just keeping each other safe and looking after each other. There's a lot of surface water out there, a lot of trees down. It's going to take us a while to clean up all of the damage so we just need everybody to play their part."
She also praised the community for their "incredible" response to the disaster.
"In our evacuation centres, people coming in with all sorts of bedding and clothes and beautiful meals. The community is responding really well and looking after each other and we ask them to continue to do that."
SHARE ME