The storm has faded into the South Pacific but left a trail of destruction and human suffering across New Zealand's North Island.
About 10,000 people are displaced, cities and towns are still without power and drinking water, and local government officials estimate tens or even hundreds of communities have yet to be contacted.
Police on Friday confirmed an eighth death as a result of the storm, saying "the person is believed to have died after being caught in flood water".
Details are only gradually emerging about the scale of the disaster and the horrors endured by survivors such as Ella Louise Collins.
Collins, her husband and their two kids were trapped in their one-storey home in the hard-hit Hawke's Bay region when the floodwaters arrived.
"The water was about 10 centimetres from the ceiling in our house and rose extremely quickly and violently," Collins wrote in a Facebook post on Thursday.
The family of four tried to escape to the safety of a neighbour's roof, but were stopped by what she called "a sudden torrent of water which almost drowned us all".
In the chaos, two-and-a-half-year-old Ivy was swept away and drowned. Collins said the child "died very quickly".
"Please give us time while we ground ourselves and navigate this impossible time."
Prime Minister Chris Hipkins toured the Hawke's Bay region on Friday, saying "the whole country" was feeling for communities affected.
"There are some people who are in a very, very fragile state.
"I just ask people to keep going, you know, we will get through this. We will come out the other side of it. But it is an exceptionally challenging circumstance at the moment."
- 'The pressure grows' -
Hipkins came to office less than a month ago with the shock resignation of Jacinda Ardern -- who won international acclaim for her handling of a string of crises, including the 2019 Christchurch mosque attacks.
Now, five days after Gabrielle first struck, Hipkins is facing mounting questions about the speed of his administration's response in one of the wealthiest and most disaster-ready countries in the world.
"The longer the power's out, the longer the communications are out, the more the pressure grows. I feel that," Hipkins said.
"I've absolutely felt that today on the ground... All I can say to people is: everyone is going as fast as they can to try and get things reconnected."
He also told New Zealanders to prepare for several more days of crisis response before the cleanup can begin in earnest, and for "the likelihood there will be more fatalities".
Hipkins said police have "grave concerns" for those still missing, with 4,500 reports of people still unaccounted for.
He added that an 80-strong team is working to whittle that figure down.
With roads and bridges still unusable, the military has been deployed to help provide clean drinking water and supplies by sea and air.
The east coast city of Gisborne on Friday issued an urgent warning that drinking water was unsafe to consume after a "major" failure at the local treatment plant.
Local emergency management officials said it was "unknown" how long the district would be without clean water.
Authorities said 62,000 homes nationwide were still without power on Friday.
New Zealand accepts international help as cyclone cripples North Island
Napier, New Zealand (AFP) Feb 16, 2023 -
New Zealand redeployed gunships and helicopters to deliver water, food and fuel to cities cut off by Cyclone Gabrielle on Thursday, as overwhelmed rescue teams embraced overseas offers of help.
Five people have died and 10,500 more have been displaced, according to authorities, in a disaster that has crippled the country's populous North Island.
Four days of violent winds and lashing rains caused landslides and widespread flooding that lacerated the island's road network, caused rolling power cuts and knocked out hundreds of mobile phone towers.
Police said 3,500 people had been reported as "uncontactable", as residents around the country tried desperately to reach loved ones.
New Zealand Prime Minister Chris Hipkins said the police held "grave concerns" for those still missing.
"We do need to be prepared for the likelihood there will be more fatalities," he warned.
Hipkins said over 100,000 households were still without power on the North Island, home to more than three-quarters of the country's five million residents.
On Thursday, the east-coast city of Napier was briefly cut off after experts detected damage to the last useable bridge linking its 65,000 residents with the rest of the country.
The national Transport Agency said the bridge had since reopened, but only for emergency services and critical workers.
Isolated residents have been told not to leave their homes unless "absolutely essential" and to restrict water use.
When residents do venture out, they wade through murky floodwaters to get supplies or huddle on the steps of a few buildings that still have wifi, trying to let loved ones know they are safe.
Around the city, petrol stations have put up signs declaring there is "NO FUEL" for anyone other than emergency services.
- 'Bumpy ride' -
Earlier Hipkins warned New Zealanders of a long, gruelling recovery ahead, with power not expected to be restored to some areas for weeks and the clean-up likely to take much longer.
"This is a traumatic event," he said. "It's a very big challenge to restore infrastructure as fast as we can, but we have to acknowledge that we are in for a bumpy ride."
"There are no overnight fixes. We could have the bulldozers working 24/7 and it would still take time to re-establish road links."
The New Zealand Defence Force has deployed two large naval vessels and a C-130 Hercules transport plane to deliver thousands of litres of water along with personnel and several mobile water treatment plants to hard-hit regions.
NH90 helicopters have brought in supplies and rescued hundreds of people stranded on their rooftops.
After offers of help from the United States and other countries were initially set aside, Hipkins said emergency response experts from Australia would arrive in the coming days.
The cyclone itself has already faded into the South Pacific, but further downpours and severe thunderstorms complicated relief efforts and sparked new landslides.
Authorities are still grappling with the scale of the devastation wrought by the storm, and estimates of the damage done and the cost of repairs are scarce.
"We know it's going to be in the region of billions, not millions, of dollars," Kiwibank chief economist Jarrod Kerr told AFP.
"I think the figure will be in the range of several billion -- five to 10 billion dollars (US$3-6 billion), possibly more."
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