‘We’ve seen no help’: Isolated Hawke’s Bay village locals feel abandoned after cyclone

Residents of an isolated Hawke’s Bay village are desperate for help as essential supplies run low and many feel abandoned by the services that should have came to their aid.

Stocks of fuel, gas, food and water are shrinking in Puketapu, west of Napier, as power and telecommunications are largely inaccessible for many.

It is among one of the worst-hit areas by Cyclone Gabrielle in the last 36 hours.

Puketapu locals clear out their homes after Cyclone Gabrielle. Photo / Mark Mitchell

Many people are still unable to access their homes as they are filled with silt, local orchards have been cleared out, paddocks have become lakes and several roads are cut off through collapsed bridges or slips.

Several people the Herald spoke to lauded the community’s spirit and people’s willingness to help their neighbours, but they questioned why earlier support hadn’t been provided by the New Zealand Defence Force or Civil Defence staff.

“What’s been going on is the community is amazing, everyone’s pitching in,” resident Stuart Parker said this morning.

“Outside help has been absolutely absent ... we’ve had literally nothing, we’ve seen and received no help.”

By late morning, a Fire and Emergency urban search and rescue team had arrived to evacuate an elderly couple from their home. One NZDF Unimog truck arrived about 11.30am but left shortly afterwards.

Carolyn and Brian Whittington are rescued by a USAR team from their property at Puketapu which was cut off by Cyclone Gabrielle floodwaters. Photo / Mark Mitchell

Without power, Parkers said reserves of fuel and gas could only last them another 24 hours, with generators being shared throughout the village.

“If we weren’t resilient and had stores of food and water, we’d be in big trouble.

“I’m not standing here b******g and moaning, but it’s just insulting to listen to the radio about people sitting in a bunker in Wellington saying, ‘We’re doing everything we can to provide essential services’ - b******t, absolute b******t.”

Phil and Kathyrn Simmons watched from their hilltop property as the paddocks below filled with water, overflowing low-lying residences.

They said one man had swum out of his home, clutching all the gear he could manage, to escape the floodwaters.

Many low-lying properties around Puketapu are still flooded. Photo / Mark Mitchell

Kathryn sensed anger was growing in the community at the lack of assistance and communication.

“A bit forgotten is how we feel,” she said.

“All you see is helicopters overhead ... I’m sure they’re doing whatever they’re doing but it’s just so frustrating.”

Several helicopters assisted in rescues of orchard workers, but others who called emergency services were told they’d have to get to safety on their own.

The workers, mainly from Sāmoa, Vanuatu and Tonga, were dropped off at the village’s centre and were ushered by residents into the local school hall.

Mary Danielson, owner of the Puketapu pub for 17 years, was central in co-ordinating food and water for those displaced.

Puketapu Hotel owner Mary Danielson. Photo / Mark Mitchell

Fortunately, the gas was still functioning so she and many others went about cooking “big pots of food”.

She spoke of the workers’ terror in the rising floodwaters

“A lot of them don’t swim and the water was up to [their chest] and they were traumatised,” she said.

Under clear skies today, many locals were cleaning out their homes. Every household item imaginable sat on people’s front lawns, coated in mud.

People seeking comfort found it in their neighbours, as many hugged and cried together in the middle of the road.

Puketapu Hotel owner Mary Danielson hugging local resident Gary, who's lost his home. Photo / Mark Mitchell

Danielson expressed the immense pride she had in her community and how it had rallied to help those in need.

“The people are amazing, but very, very sad and very worried and just a mix of emotions,” she said.

“We need water now, we need lots of things but we understand we’re not going to get power for a long time and we’re fine with that, but it’s just we’re feeling a little bit lost.

“Everyone’s lost their livelihoods and not just their houses, their orchards, their machinery, it’s all gone.”

Allan Smith's yard and everything in it has been consumed by the flood. Photo / Mark Mitchell

Allan Smith, who owned the local farm supplies and machinery outfit, had to escape 4m-high floodwaters alongside his wife and three children.

“I stacked furniture on our deck got on the roof and prayed like f*** someone would come pick us up, and they did.”

The area outside his workshop was unrecognisable this morning. The dozen cars that filled his yard were almost fully submerged in dirty brown water.

He pointed to a caravan that had been in his yard, now 30 metres down the road, having been picked up in the flood.

A caravan retailer faces a difficult clean-up after the cyclone hit Puketapu. Photo / Mark Mitchell

The flood had also displaced two 40-foot containers. One, balancing precariously on its side, contained a muscle car worth at least $100,000. The other was more than 100m away and sat next to a seemingly ruined 30ha orchard owned by Turners and Growers.

Smith was more understanding of the level of support Puketapu had been provided, simply because of the unprecedented nature of the cyclone.

“This is unreal, no one thought this was going to happen,” he said.

“Were they prepared? No, but they didn’t think it was going to be to this scale.”