Local Focus: Flaxmere marae comes to the rescue but needs towels

Flaxmere’s Te Aranga Marae is ready to help the many Hastings residents displaced by the floods.

“We’re preparing kai, we’re preparing beds, we’re preparing for whānau to come who need to be placed here for the time being until this is all over,” said marae volunteer Sally Ann Pritchard.

She said volunteers from around the Flaxmere community have rallied to help those in need by bringing food and other necessities.

“Everything that you could think of is coming,” she said. “Right down to fan heaters and electric cooktops.”

Pritchard said the marae needs more blankets and towels, “because some of our whānau have just left with the clothes that they’ve got on”.

“We’ve had some people turn up literally in sheets and their underwear.”

Te Aranga Marae is a good base for Flaxmere and Omahu and its members are putting a call out for spare blankets and towels from whānau.

Public Interest Journalism Fund