The death toll from Cyclone Gabrielle has risen to eight and emergency services continue to hold grave fears for many others, prime minister Chris Hipkins said this evening in Wellington.

Police report that 4,549 people are currently uncontactable, he added, and a team of 80 is working to narrow down the list and to prioritise contact with those most likely to be missing.

“To put it really simply, it is really rough up there,” Hipkins said following today’s visit to Hawke’s Bay. “There’s no getting away from the fact that it is incredibly tough on the ground.

“To see today just how hard people and property have been affected really did hammer home that we’re going to be dealing with the effects of the cyclone for quite some time.”

He provided an update on power connections and cell coverage in the worst-hit areas.

Generators have been brought into Napier, providing power to several supermarkets and service stations and allowing them to open. An operation is currently underway to get parts of the city connected to power, with work continuing through the night.

About 90% of Hastings township is connected to electricity and Havelock North is around 95% connected.

Getting cell phone towers back up and running is also a high priority, he said, “as we know that there are still many families or look worried about loved ones and can’t connect”. As of 4pm, across Northland, Gisborne and Hawke’s Bay, cell phone coverage has been returned to an estimated 70% for call and text messaging, with an expectation of 75% tomorrow. Data is likely to take longer.

More than 700 Defence Force staff are currently deployed in cyclone-affected areas, Air Commodore Darryn Webb said. On the East Coast a ship had dropped off supplies in Tokomaru Bay, while in Wairoa a water treatment plant had been set up.

A C-130 Hercules has just departed Auckland with water treatment facilities for Gisborne, where locals have been warned not to use tap water.

A ship with 26 tonnes of supplies on board had arrived in Hawke’s Bay and the army had established a headquarters in Napier.

Duncan Greive popped along to the annual Auckland Business Chamber lunch, with finance minister Grant Robertson:

At an annual event which launches the political year for corporate New Zealand, there was a slight tension between a business community desperate for a period of stability and normalcy and the immense, unimaginable weight of the floods undergirding every speech and conversation.

Finance minister Grant Robertson noted that, despite the traditionally distant relationship between Labour and business, “it’s actually an event [he] looks forward to… Then something always happens.”

That “something” this year is the horrific damage wrought by Cyclone Gabrielle, which fundamentally altered not just the basis of the speech but the texture of the whole political year. Robertson acknowledged that there would be few, as MC Simon Bridges put it, “lollies” in May’s pre-election Budget. Instead the centre of Robertson’s speech was a shift from mitigation to adaptation as the heart of the government’s climate change response. And a desire for infrastructure resilience to be there underpinning it all.

It was former National leader Bridges’ first time leading this event. He made reference to the floods, to geopolitics and the queasy global economic environment – and to the election in a little over six months time. That event already experienced a step-change with Ardern’s resignation and Hipkins’ elevation. The extremes of the summer’s weather mean that calculus has changed again.

Duncan Greive will deliver a more comprehensive reflection on Robertson’s speech and the new economic reality for The Spinoff on Tuesday.

A street in the Auckland seaside community of Muriwai has been ordered to evacuate.

The local volunteer fire brigade posted on Facebook earlier today that all residents on Domain Crescent should leave immediately.

“If you know of people still there please contact them to pass on this message.”

Auckland’s west coast was hit hard by the recent cyclone, which only compounded problems started with the January flooding.

Two members of the Muriwai fire brigade were killed after a house collapsed earlier this week following a landslide.

Gisborne locals have been urgently told to stop using the town’s water supply.

It’s after the town’s water treatment plant failed, meaning the water supply will soon not be safe for human consumption.

In a post on Facebook, the Tairāwhiti Civil Defence said this was a “major crisis” for Gisborne. “Don’t turn your taps on. The Waipaoa back up water treatment has failed. We are not getting any water into the city’s reservoirs. STOP NOW,” the post read, asking people to share the message widely.

Local MP Kiri Allan told 1News that the region was relying on the navy for water supply. In a frantic, all-caps post on her Instagram, Allan reiterated the message not to use any town water.

“OUR WATER TREATMENT SYSTEM HAS FAILED – PLEASE CEASE USING WATER IN GISBORNE CITY UNTIL FURTHER NOTICE.”

Earlier in the week, water shipments were delivered to parts of the East Coast most isolated due to Cyclone Gabrielle.

Stuff has reported a seventh death from Cyclone Gabrielle: a man in his 70s from Waiohiki in Hawke’s Bay.

While officials were yet to confirm this, it’s feared the death toll will continue to rise as the full aftermath of the severe weather is realised.

A temporary morgue has been set up at Napier Port, the same area where police and the defence force were based.

It’s remarkable to think it’s only been about a month since Jacinda Ardern dropped the bombshell that she’d be resigning as prime minister.

What followed was a masterclass in a political transition – take note Tories – with Chris Hipkins installed unopposed just a few days later.

But in the three weeks since Hipkins became prime minister, few details have escaped about the shift from Ardern. We knew that only a handful of people had been made aware of her intention to step down. We knew that the former PM had taken the summer to solidify this decision.

But now, the Herald’s Claire Trevett has detailed in extraordinary detail how the transition from Ardern to Hipkins played out.

I highly encourage you to read the piece (which is paywalled) in full. But, should you choose not to, here are some of the most exquisite details we’ve plucked out:

An important Cazador dinner

I once saw Jacinda Ardern out for dinner with Lorde at Cazador on Dominion Road, so it’s perhaps no surprise that this was the location where she informed deputy PM Grant Robertson of her plan to step down. The detail of Trevett’s piece is such that she notes: “At the table next to them were a couple of tourists who had no idea who she was. Other customers told them it was the prime minister after Ardern left.”

Robertson was ‘dropping to the floor to do stretches’

Chris Hipkins was told of Ardern’s decision to step down before the summer, where he encouraged her to take some extra time to think about it. He’d been called to the PM’s office alongside Grant Robertson and chief of staff Raj Nahna. This meeting will have been when Hipkins first thought about whether he’d like to become prime minister, but no plan was put in motion until earlier this year.

Another exceptional detail from Trevett is that at this meeting, “proceedings were occasionally interrupted by Robertson, who had a ruptured disc in his back, dropping to the floor to do stretches”.

Shocked – but not surprised

Trevett notes that while only a select few knew of Ardern’s impending resignation, those who had not been informed were not entirely taken aback. “Most of those who had not known in advance were shocked when she said she was resigning – but not surprised. They had noticed she was exhausted,” Trevett writes.

One of her former staff is quoted as saying: “I thought if she had a restful summer she could do it. But I also knew going into the summer that it was going to be 50-50.”

The whiskey raid

On the day of Ardern’s resignation, emotions were understandably high within her core team. There were tears from many – part of the reason media had been barred from attending the Labour Party caucus retreat.

“The excuse given for closing the morning to media was that MPs would be discussing election strategy and the walls were thin so they did not want media to overhear. The first part wasn’t exactly a lie: although it was not quite the election strategy anybody expected. The real reason was they didn’t want the media to see staff or MPs wandering about shocked and crying before the announcement.”

Back in Wellington, as Ardern’s announcement was made public, a staffer raided chief of staff Raj Nahna’s whiskey cabinet. Four bottles were consumed that afternoon.

Kiri Allan was shocked at speculation she could be PM

The Spinoff – like other outlets – released our thorough predictions on who would become the next PM. We had Hipkins in top billing, but one other name we floated was Kiri Allan. The cabinet minister had become visible and widely liked under Ardern and there was unfounded speculation she might throw her hat in the ring for the top job. She initially refused to comment – building speculation – though Trevett revealed this was planned by Labour.

“Kiri Allan had been talked about in the media – to her horror,” writes Trevett. “She told caucus very early on that Thursday that she had no intention of going for it. However, in a bid to try to keep speculation on the down-low, caucus had decided that no MP would comment publicly on whether they were or were not thinking about it.”

The effects of climate change are beginning to pool at the feet of New Zealand’s coastal home owners. Climate Sigma managing director Belinda Storey says most beachfront properties will either need to be moved or demolished in the next 30 years. In the latest episode of When the Facts Change, Storey and Bernard discuss the morally hazardous world of climate finance, the future cost of repairing mega-mansions, and how the taxpayer can avoid footing the full bill.

National MP Harete Hipango has announced she wants to contest the Māori seat of Te Tai Hauāuru at this year’s election. She had already put her name forward for the Whanganui seat again, but in a statement yesterday, said she would withdraw from the process to pursue selection in Te Tai Hauāuru.

The broad consensus is that it’s unwinnable for Hipango but it’s still fairly significant given the National party has not run candidates in the Māori seats since 2005, and has advocated for their abolition. In January this year Christopher Luxon said the seats “don’t make a lot of sense”.  National’s potential coalition partner Act, have also previously said they want the seats abolished.

Want to read The Bulletin in full? Click here to subscribe and join over 36,000 New Zealanders who start each weekday with the biggest stories in politics, business, media and culture.  

The second volunteer firefighter trapped in a collapsed house in Muriwai has died in hospital.

Earlier in the week there were reports that a landslide in the Auckland beach community had brought down a house. One of the firefighters caught in slip was missing for a day before his body was recovered, while Craig Stevens was taken to hospital in a critical condition.

But last night, Fire and Emergency chief executive Kerry Gregory confirmed Stevens had died.

“We are still coming to terms with the news that Craig, our second firefighter caught in the Muriwai landslide, has died in hospital,” said Gregory.

“All of Fire and Emergency will feel his loss, and my heart goes out to his family.”

It takes the death toll following the cyclone to six, though there are fears that will continue to rise over the coming days with thousands of people still unaccounted for.