After being rocked by a deadly 7.8-magnitude earthquake, a wave of powerful aftershocks and heavy rain, thousands are now stranded in New Zealand.
Helicopters are being sent to airlift trapped tourists and locals from cut-off communities in the Hurunui and Kaikoura districts, according to the New Zealand Ministry of Civil Defence and Emergency Management.
A pair of ships, the HMNZS Canterbury and HMNZS Wellington, have also been sent to waters off the coast of Canterbury to assist.
Kaikoura, which is near the epicenter of the quake, is now cut off from the rest of the country.
A handful of roads are closed indefinitely, according to the Canterbury Civil Defence and Emergency Management’s Facebook page. But power in some places has been restored, as have limited telecommunications capabilities.
“It’s going to take weeks to fix this.” CNN meteorologists Tom Sater said. “This is going to be a big cleanup in the days to come.”
Search and rescue teams, landslide specialists and building inspectors have been deployed, the agency said in a statement.
“We know that water, food and fuel are required in Kaikoura, Hurunui and Marlborough, and we’re coordinating relief supplies and transport to get those essentials in,” the agency said.
And much of the country is now dealing with flooding, the effects of which are being exacerbated by the quakes’ aftermath.
Both the North and South islands are getting hit with showers and gusty winds, according to CNN meteorologist Brandon Miller.
Aftershocks are expected to continue following the initial quake, which killed two people after it struck early Monday local time, New Zealand authorities said.
It triggered waves of 2.49 meters (8 feet) above usual tide levels, the highest he has seen in his 38 years in New Zealand, Philip Duncan of Weather Watch New Zealand said.
The quake was so powerful it cracked roads, destroyed homes and eviscerated mountain facades.
Journalists at Radio New Zealand spoke with one family whose house was on a fault line and moved from its foundation.
A birds-eye view of the house shows the driveway cut down the middle, feet away from where it used to be.
“I’d say it’s billions of dollars worth of money that we have to spend here but we’re focused on what we’re doing and we’ll keep up the good work,” New Zealand Prime Minister John Key said after the quake.
