Fire and Emergency New Zealand say a man walked 70km to give search a rescue teams a list of people that needed help in Cyclone Gabrielle.

Gabrielle’s death toll stands at six in New Zealand as a spell of good weather improves prospects for rescue teams and recovery.

Urban Search and Rescue team leader Ken Cooper from FENZ said a man walked 70km from Putorino to Napier to give rescue workers help with their missions.

“That’s a day and a half walk,” he told Radio NZ.

“He walked to give us a list of people still trapped up in the East Coast.”

A woman was killed in Putorino on Tuesday when a house collapsed on her, under weight of a landslip.

Hawke’s Bay civil defence controller Iain Maxwell said aerial surveillance had revealed communities still cut off from main centres due to flooding or busted roads.

“There’s dozens of them,” he told Radio NZ.

“We’ve had aircraft leaning into a couple of locations to areas we knew people had made contact … to assess needs and get a feel for what we’re going to prepare for.”

Mr Cooper says they are prioritising the Esk Valley, north of Napier, and Awatoto, to the city’s south.

“We’re looking to make sure we’ve searched every property we can over the next few days,” he told Radio NZ.

“A lot of properties are completely filled with silt.”

Mr Cooper said the team rescued around 40 stranded people on Thursday.

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