New Zealand

The Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Justice Samiu Vaipulu has confirmed this to Kaniva News.

“‘E fai ‘a e ngāue ki ai”, he said in Tongan.

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 “We‘ve got a group of Tongan people who have come here who have also experienced 12 months ago the earthquake and tsunami in Tonga. They are already traumatised from that event a year ago," says the Pasifika Medical Association Chief Executive Debbie Sorensen.

“In Tonga following the volcano, every time a truck went past a house people were frightened because the house would shake, and they felt that another volcano or tsunami might happen.

Of the new cases, were 3813 reinfections.

Of the deaths being reported today, one was from Northland, 15 were from the Auckland region, two were from Hawke's Bay, two were from Taranaki, one was from MidCentral, two were from Whanganui, five were from Wellington region, three were from Nelson Marlborough, four were from Canterbury, one was from West Coast and three were from Southern.

Bryce Barker, who now lives in Australia, was held alongside fellow members of his research team.

They were doing fieldwork in a remote part of PNG's highlands when they were taken by a criminal gang from Hela Province who demanded a ransom for their freedom.

Their release brings to an end days of negotiations, and a complex security operation involving PNG police and defence personnel, in consultation with the Australian and New Zealand governments.

It comes two days after another woman who had also been taken was set free.

Alusio Kaloudau, a team leader of a Fijian Recognised Seasonal Employer (RSE) group, said they are staying in Flaxmere Community Centre in Hastings in Hawke's Bay on the east coast.

RNZ Pacific reports during and after the storm the group of 21 workers were forced to move into three different shelters.

Kaloudau said his team was told to "just relax" by one of the RSE caretakers when they arrived at the first shelter.

Aotearoa Tongan Response Group deputy chair Pakilau Manase Lua said that like many others in the region, these workers were likely in need of help, but would be too scared to come forward due to the fear of being sent back home.

He said he was worried about their safety, and called on the government to grant an amnesty.

Lua said these workers would have arrived from the Pacific under the Recognised Seasonal Employer (RSE) scheme and ended up overstaying their visas.

He estimated there were "a few hundred" of them in the Hawke's Bay and Gisborne regions.

At least five people have died in Hawke’s Bay, including a child. As of today the government estimates 10,500 people have been displaced and 1442 are uncontactable in the region.

Tagata Pasifika reports Napier is expected to have no power for at least two weeks and the communication line is not fully restored. 

However, emergency power has been provided at a medical centre where community leader, Tofilau Talalelei Taufale is able to provide an update on the situation. 

The long, strong quake hit at 7.38pm, at a depth of 50km north-west of Paraparaumu.

More than 60,500 people indicated they felt it on the Geonet website, with about 40 percent of them saying it felt moderate or stronger.

RNZ reports GNS Science duty seismologist Jen Andrews said when earthquakes occurred at that depth, they tended to be very widely felt.

"The energy gets sort of pushed up and around very very efficiently by an event at this depth."

Aotearoa Tongan Response Group Chair, Anahila Kanongata'a-Suisuiki MP, told PMN News the 150 workers are well but she couldn't say how they ended up stranded and why they were left behind in the flood waters.

"They have been relocated. They are no longer in the orchard. NEMA is due to provide official information as to where they are."

She says their respective home countries have been notified that the rescue was successful.

She says she tried reaching out to the workers over the phone, to no avail.

In a media briefing this morning, Fire and Emergency (FENZ) chief executive Kerry Gregory said a volunteer fire brigade crew had been responding to flooding on Motutara Road on Monday night.

"Last night, just before 11 [pm]... while they were at that incident there was a landslide and the landslide took out two houses and trapped two of our firefighters there," Gregory said.