Dargaville kūmara grower shares lessons from Cyclone Gabrielle

Dargaville dairy farmer and Fonterra farm relationship advisor Jo Bryant-Fischer checks out the one-tonne, bright orange 57KvA diesel generator. Generator and diesel engine importer Paul McGovern, of Auckland, said it could power most Northland dairy farms. Photo / Susan Botting

Dargaville kūmara grower Andre de Bruin says “everybody’s big is big” when it comes to dealing with a future disaster like Cyclone Gabrielle.

This was a major lesson learned from Cyclone Gabrielle and needed to be considered for future disasters, the kūmara grower and livestock farmer said.

The Northern Wairoa vegetable growers association committee member outlined lessons learned from the cyclone at a workshop in Dargaville last week.

The event was held almost a year to the day after Cyclone Gabrielle wreaked havoc over much of Northland then doubled back and blasted Kaipara.

Its Northern Wairoa Boating Club venue was high and dry last week, but one year ago was surrounded by floodwaters at high tide.

The catchphrase “everyone’s big is big” was coined by his wife Dargaville accountant Kathryn de Bruin, he said.

She is a Horticulture New Zealand board member and helped out with Cyclone Gabrielle, including with making rural support claims.

The saying meant everybody’s hit mattered to them, no matter how big its apparent impact seemed from the outside.

It did not matter whether that was an operation with a $50 million turnover hit, or a single small orchard had been wrecked.

De Bruin spoke at the Dargaville business continuity in emergencies workshop.

Dargaville kūmara grower Andre de Bruin says "everybody's big is big" when it comes to the impact of major weather events like Cyclone Gabrielle. Photo / Susan Botting

Northland Civil Defence emergency management recovery specialist Mark Trudinger said the workshop was one of seven that had grown out of needs identified as a result of Cyclone Gabrielle by Northland Adverse Events Trust.

The workshop heard how de Bruin’s kūmara farming was significantly impacted by the cyclone, with floodwaters up to chest height at parts of his property.

But for Andre de Bruin’s father, in his eighties, a single fence downed by floodwaters in a paddock with stock on his smaller property mattered.

“As soon as we could get out through the flooding at our place we went and sorted out the fence. He was satisfied,” de Bruin said.

“Everybody’s big is big”.

Rural insurer FMG Northland rural manager David Pilkington said there had been an inclination for Northlanders not to lodge insurance claims as early as was best, after seeing what people in Hawke’s Bay and Tairāwhiti were going through.

Farmer and grower workshop participants brainstorm risks facing dairy farmers as they create a business continuity emergency plan. Photo / Susan Botting

De Bruin outlined lessons for rural producers who are hit by future severe weather events.

“Concentrate on what you can control and don’t worry about the rest. Otherwise you end up angry,” he said.

He said farmers should not beat themselves up if their operation had been badly hit by a disaster.

“Sometimes we think it’s our own neglect, but sometimes it’s because of something beyond our control.

“You can become very vulnerable thinking you’re a bad farmer,” de Bruin said.

De Bruin also advised people to take time away from their business.

He travelled to Napier and saw the impacts of the cyclone there.

It made him realise how lucky he was not to have to deal with the huge quantities of silt that were part of the mix in Hawkes Bay’s impacts.

De Bruin said people had worked together, including his brother-in-law north of Dargaville who researched mobile generators.

“On the morning of the cyclone he said to his wife ‘sort the cows out, start getting on the phone (to others), I’m going to Auckland.”

His brother-in-law returned from Auckland with a mobile generator bought from a business he had already connected with, roads closing behind him.

Cyclone Gabrielle hit during the middle of the milking season. The generator saved seven dairy herds for the rest of the season, he said.

The next workshop is in Kaitāia on February 21 then Kerikeri on February 22; Wellsford on March 5; Kaikohe on March 14; Jordan Valley on March 20; and Whangārei on March 27.

Each includes a Cyclone Gabrielle-impacted farmer or grower speaking about lessons learned from the event.

■ LDR is local body journalism co-funded by RNZ and NZ On Air.