yep I agree. I haven't added the paths back, I've just created an empty line which identifies the feature as 'damaged/destroyed by cyclone gabrielle' 
 for example: https://osm.org/way/1153187058 - this is helpful for a variety of reasons, one of which is that these features can be reviewed more regularly, and you can quickly get an overview of everything damanged by the cyclone, e.g. via https://overpass-turbo.eu/s/1shu