ONE YEAR AGO TODAY ... after the deluge

By ANDR? HUEBER
CYNTHIA Kenny almost died a year ago. She clung for her life to the branch of a tree before firefighter Brent Webb saved her from the gushing river below.
Floodwaters stranded her school bus between Kawakawa and Opua, so Cynthia and some friends decided to make their own way home.
They encountered a swollen creek near Lemon's Hill which only Cynthia attempted to cross.
She tripped and clung to a tree for 20 minutes in ferocious floodwaters.
"At first crossing the river seemed like fun, but I started to get freaked out after clinging to the tree for a while. I wasn't expecting the whole fire brigade to rescue me."
It was pure luck firefighters were clearing slips in Opua at the time.
If they had been at their normal home in Paihia the road would have been impassable.
Volunteer firefighter Brent Webb flung a rope across to Cynthia to attach to the tree and shimmied across.
He then had to persuade her to haul herself along the rope to safety.
"He told me it would be like climbing the monkey bars at school.
"It was pretty scary."
One year on, Cynthia is still getting stick from her family.
"When I got home after being rescued everyone was laughing at me.
"But when they saw the photo in the Northern Advocate they really started laughing."
Cynthia says it's because she's the youngest in the family and is always getting into trouble.
"My uncle sent the photo to friends and family in Australia and my mum said she's going to blow it up and frame it for my 21st."
Since leaving school at the start of the year, Cynthia has been on work experience at the local Four Square and is considering training as a hair and makeup artist in Auckland.
"I'm keen to travel but don't think I'll go away for long because I get really homesick."
For Brent it was "just another callout."
He is quick not to take credit for the rescue and says Cynthia's survival was a result of everyone working together.
Not long after the rescue he "ran away" to a circus in Victoria for six months but came back to New Zealand because all his mates were celebrating their 21st birthdays.
He wants to return across the ditch, this time to Western Australia where he plans to earn good money working in mines.
Eventually he hopes to become a paid fireman.
Even though Cynthia and Brent haven't seen each other since the accident, they have a special connection. One might not be here without the other.