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Air New Zealand said it had cancelled several North Island flights scheduled from Sunday to Tuesday.
Norfolk Island, located between New Caledonia and New Zealand, covers just over 34 square kilometres in the Pacific Ocean.
Its roughly 2000 residents were on Saturday fuelling up emergency power generators and tying down outdoor equipment ahead of the cyclone’s arrival.
Norfolk Island administrator Eric Hutchinson said the territory had already experienced some power outages.
Tourists were urged to leave ahead of the storm, but Hutchinson said anywhere between 800 and 950 visitors remained on the island.
“We are well prepared and we have just got to see this through, and then we will look at what resources are going to be needed in a recovery phase from tomorrow,” he told ABC TV.
The Bureau of Meteorology posted a graphic outlining the expected trajectory of the storm.
Australia’s mainland is not expected to be impacted by the cyclone, but in New Zealand, some North Island regions, including Auckland – the country’s largest city – were preparing for bad weather.
The country’s weather forecaster, MetService, said it expected Gabrielle to move towards New Zealand in the coming days.
“We expect to see impacts from this cyclone from Sunday starting in the north and spreading south to other parts of northern and central New Zealand,” the forecaster said.
Last month, Auckland and parts of the North Island were hit by record rainfall that sparked widespread floods and killed four people.
AAP, Reuters
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