The council says the water treatment system has failed.
Council manager Scotty Sharp says people need to stop using water in Gisborne City until further notice.
“Stop all use right now,” he says, “Everything, absolutely everything.
“Critical, it’s absolutely critical. We need to get the info out to the public because it’s just failed and it’s just failed now.”
Sharp says the council doesn’t know why it’s failed, but silt could have overloaded the system.
Meanwhile, people in Auckland are still being evacuated from their homes in Piha as land remains dangerous and unstable days after Cyclone Gabrielle.
Locals are warning city sightseers to stay away from the Auckland beach community, saying they are still in the middle of an emergency.
Overnight, the death toll from Cyclone Gabrielle rose to six as the second firefighter caught in the Muriwai landslide died in hospital.
- With communities in cut-off regions having limited reception, here’s RNZ’s text-only updates on what those in Auckland, Tairāwhiti, Coromandel and Hawke’s Bay need to know.
Follow the latest weather updates with RNZ’s live blog below:
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