Watch: Devastation in Gisborne following Cyclone Gabrielle | nzherald.co.nz 

interesting to see that the vast majority of bridge damage was caused by forestry slash and erosion from forestry. maybe some account is necessary?

Maori can no longer hide behind the thin veil of kaitiakitanga with an overwhelming involvement in the forestry industry. Be interesting to see whether we take any responsibility for the damage caused by the forestry debris. It has lead to deaths and deep devastation.

Michael, UK. Absolutely heartbreaking. The scale of this tragedy is very difficult to grasp and comprehend; made so much worse with mud, silt and landslides. My heart goes out to you New Zealand. God Bless you.

TY to all the Emergency services for working as hard and as fast as use could, ty 🚔🚑🚒🚓🚚🚚🚚🚛🚛🚛🚛🚜🚜🚜🚁🚁🚁Stay safe Aotearoa/New Zealand! Arohamai 💖💖

Make the forestry industry pay for new bridges. It's pretty evident that without the slash washing down the rivers, the bridges would be fine.

I was in Gisborne a few years ago. I asked a local where all the timber waste on the beaches came from. It was so bad it was hard to walk on the beach. He said " forestry, they are supposed to clean it up but the government let's it go". I saw a video of these present floods in NZ where the timber waste beaver dammed against a bridge and took the bridge out and by the looks of this video it's done the same to the bridge in this video. Let's hope the forestry businesses pay for the new bridges.

Earth can be cruel. Praying for a good recovery.

Anyone angry with the forestry waste breaking the bridges

Aerial shots of Wairoa township… Totally munted, to use local the parlance. Very sad. Can’t imagine facing that

Thank you for this. Kia Kaha whanau Arohanui from Australia ❤️

The headline is a bit misleading. I have noticed a tendency to call all of the Tairawhiti, or Eastland, region by the name "Gisborne". Yes, I know the area comes under the "Gisborne District Council", but most people associate the name with the city urban area of around 35 thousand people. I can assure you that this city, where I am writing from now, is not "devastated". Some properties close to the river were flooded, but we are mostly fine, and there are no bridges down here. Some of the outlying rural areas however, are apparently a different story and many small towns up the coast are still cut off. Speaking for the city, most of us were without power for less than a day, we had about 5 days with no internet and very little phone connection, and water supplies are restricted. This was all due to damaged infrastructure in the region, not in the city itself. Damage in the rural areas is pretty bad, however I think nowhere near the scale of Hawkes Bay. As a longtime resident of Napier previously, with family still there, I am absolutely gobsmacked by the damage in that area. Due to the damage to the road between Wairoa and Napier, it will be a long time before I can visit.

Thank you for sharing on UT. We appreciate you ❤

Wow 😳😲

ty NZHerald for opening up your comment section. 💝

Insane stuff grew up in Tk and town

Gisborne is my home town i moved to Hamilton in 2002

Lot of slash build up around that bridge as well as others

Sad very sad don't know how much time it's take to recover

So sad 😞 😥

I reside in America's East Coast. Hurricanes slamming into the most heavily settled and impoverished areas of America are, unfortunately, ways of life. So, then, I have both read and heard about Tropical Cyclone "Gabrielle" slamming into the northernmost areas of North Island, New Zealand; resulting in massive death and destruction ☠️☠️☠️. ¶ What I want readers of this scribed commentary to know is that Tropical Cyclone "Gabrielle" boasted scaringly analogies of hurricanes in America 😳😳😳. Yes, global warming has become an anomalous phenomenon; even in a southernmost beautiful country that is New Zealand 😭😭😭😭😭.

you can plainly see whos to blame-forestry, just look at the slash everywhere, made this whole thing so much worse hope the goverment is going to make them pay for not cleaning up after themselves.

forestry should pay, the slach did 90 percent of the damage, it built up so much untill the bridges couldnt take it

I hope the foreign owned forestry companies will be helping fund the rebuild. Half of the actual damage is from their rubbish left rot in the hills that smashed the bridges and other infrastructure to bits.

Kia kaha aotearoa 💚

Hopefully people get affected get help from government and kindness from all around, but that bridge- the quality is terrible! Old houses are still standing!

What bridge was that ? I didnt recognize it

This is nature, we have to live with it like the rest of the world ... as devastating as what it is we fared better than those in Pakistan who had very little support and relief by comparison to our own resources.

You call that a river? THIS is a river

Is most the town without cell Cover?

Still don't know why we don't build slopped bridges. Build them to arch over rivers. Not flat and low. The middle is higher and won't act like a darm when flooding happens.

Just devastating very sad to watch this all

Wow....... 😢

Trapped with all the cannibals. Truly scary.

Would it be possible for you to publicise drop off points where we can donate stuff to help? Much like after the Chch quakes. I'm sure, somewhere, organisers are getting Hope Busses ready. What can we do to help? ❤️

" The Greens" It was the Tahr's fault 😂

No need to water the garden love

Thanks "Big Oil" for Climate change

Just returned from dinner with a retired couple that is planning to fly from Los Angeles to Auckland Saturday - for a vacation. Republicans from Arizona. And yes, they know about the flooding. Nice people - who only see what they want to see. They expect ‘to drive around’ sightseeing.

Much Love to everyone

Those houses will be useless. There will be mould in the future as framing etc rots. There will be an increase in asthma etc. This is not good at all

look at all that slash! forest industry has some explaining! no wonder the bridges came down. This event will bring in new policies to stop this forsure.

Nobody panic, I'm on my way to pick up a truck load of generators

Aloha>2 weeks ago~ Dear God Almighty, just hearing this devastating news. ✝BigIsleHI.🌋USA