Death toll from New Zealand’s cyclone reaches eight

The death toll from New Zealand’s cyclone reached eight on Friday with more than 4,500 people still unaccounted for four days after the nation’s most destructive weather event in decades brought widespread flooding, landslides and power outages, the prime minister said.

Prime Minister Chris Hipkins said three more fatalities had been confirmed since Thursday and police held “grave fears” for other missing persons and he did not know how far the death toll would climb. A team of 25 Australian disaster response experts arrived in New Zealand on Friday to help local authorities.

The North Island east coast around New Zealand’s most populous city, Auckland, has been hardest hit and several communities remained isolated on Friday. Auckland was swamped two weeks ago by a record-breaking storm that killed four people.