As the worst of the weather passes from Cyclone Gabrielle, New Zealand authorities are scrambling to make a full assessment of the storm's devastation.
At least one cyclone-related death has been confirmed and there are fears the toll will rise as communication links are re-established with remote towns cut off by the storm.
The Hawke's Bay region appears hardest hit, with flooding forcing evacuations of a string of towns and suburbs.
As rivers broke banks and floodwaters rose, an estimated 400 people were rescued by boat, helicopter or Unimog trucks by the police or defence force.
Private helicopter operators also joined the dash to winch people to safety.
"There was one very trying situation I was involved in where an elderly lady was stuck up a tree and her husband was on the roof," Rotorforce Helicopters chief pilot Joe Faram told Radio NZ.
"By the time we managed to extract them, I had to fly them directly to hospital, because she was quite hypothermic and very weak."
"I also had one case where I flew a man off a roof and he had his leg in plaster and a whole lot of young children and I flew a young couple off with a new-born."
A Category 2 cyclone through the tropics, Gabrielle carried the same intensity as it moved south to NZ waters, impacting North Island from Sunday to Tuesday.
As of Wednesday, just two regions - Marlborough on South Island and the Wairarapa on North Island - are under heavy rain warnings, with the storm gradually petering out as it travels east into the Pacific.
Gabrielle has left a mighty toll.
"The severity and the damage that we are seeing has not been experienced in a generation," Prime Minister Chris Hipkins said.
Whole towns have been cut off by the storm, with Wairoa in the northern Hawke's Bay and some communities in the east cape region of Tairawhiti without power and unable to be reached by land, air or sea. Phone or internet connections are also down.
Emergency Management Minister Kieran McAnulty said establishing communication links was a priority.
"I'm optimistic and hopeful but i'm also really worried," he told Newstalk ZB.
"This is a massive deal and any time we have a community where we can't have reliable communication links that makes me feel anxious."
More than 225,000 people were without power on Tuesday as electricity transmission agency Transpower warned of a "grid emergency".
That situation appeared to ease in some communities, including Gisborne, by Wednesday.
Mr McAnulty said emergency services would make use of improved weather to reach into stranded communities.
"I'm really worried about Hawke's Bay. There (are) still a few gaps in the knowledge that we won't know about for another couple of hours, in particular Wairoa," he said.
"They haven't had communications for a couple of days now.
"We know there's a shortage of food and we know there's a shortage of water so that will be the focus today."
The confirmed death occurred in the northern Hawke's Bay town of Putorino, where a woman was killed when a landslip collapsed the house she was in.
A body was been found on the beach in Bay View, a hard-hit area north of Napier, with police investigating.
There are also fears for a volunteer firefighter trapped in another collapsed home, in Muriwai, west of Auckland.
