If a community's strength is judged by its kindness then Wanganui's mayor reckons her city is one of the best.
Mayor Annette Main has been overwhelmed by the generosity shown to those affected by the record-breaking floods which hit the city and district nearly a fortnight ago.
Despite the catastrophe, she said she could not get over the kindness and resilience shown by the community.
"The stories I'm hearing about what others have done for those affected by the floods is just amazing. The people putting on food, the local businesses offering physical support and cash ... they're just doing it for their community.
"For me, that demonstrates there's been a big shift in our community towards being proud of where they live and thinking of themselves as one large community and being there for another part of it.
"When we start distributing funds from the mayoral relief fund it will show that this is not a handout from council. It's a gift from your community ..."
Ms Main said those who had manned the emergency services had put in extraordinary efforts.
"Some of them have had to be told to go home and have a break because they've been working relentless hours because they just want to help so much."
Looking ahead, she was comfortable with what government ministers had been saying in terms of aid.
"I understand that will be based on what information we can provide. That includes things like numbers needing long-term accommodation, and who's going to need support because they're under-insured or not insured.
"But the messages we've been getting from Government are totally supportive.
"Ministers are not just making flying visits - they are coming here because they want to understand the extent of the problem and what we're going to need."
She said Wanganui had had its share of natural disasters and, as a result, its emergency services were probably better prepared than most.
"But you can never be prepared as you'd like in terms of personnel on the ground. That was obvious during this emergency because there was just not enough time to get in the numbers of people we needed to react quickly to every situation.
"You can't have huge numbers of people on standby in case an event happens."
A recurring complaint from those caught in the floods was that they didn't get enough warning and Ms Main said if she was in their position she would think the same.
"But, in fact, nobody was given enough warning.
"The weather reports were not indicating the rain we got. And the river level warnings were not predicting flood levels that would go over the stopbanks.
"Normally we have eight to 10 hours before the level at Pipiriki gets to Wanganui ..."
She said in October 2013 authorities had the chance to go along Anzac Parade warning householders the river was likely to flood "but the circumstances prevented us from responding as we did two years ago".