Locals are picking through the remains of homes and vehicles destroyed by Cyclone Gabrielle in Esk Valley.
Video / Neil Reid
A 10-day-old baby girl who had just been released from the hospital’s special care unit was trapped with her family for three days in Hawke’s Bay until a helicopter rescued them.
The Goodgame family home on Dartmoor Rd was completely cut off after the Sacred Hill bridge was washed awayand three large slips covered their driveway.
Stevie-Lee Goodgame said she is still in fight or flight mode after trying to clamber off their property with baby Frankie strapped to her front and falling backwards in the mud.
She was worried about supplies after Frankie had been in the Special Care Baby Unit with hypoglycemia.
”I was starting to think if I wasn’t eating properly, because I’m breastfeeding, then my milk would dry up, and we didn’t have any formula.”
Stevie-Lee said she had survivor’s guilt because their house wasn’t flooded, just cut off, whereas her friend in Meanee, who was due for a caesarean on Wednesday, had lost everything.
The friend was rescued from the roof of her home on Tuesday night along with her husband and their four-year-old.
Stevie-Lee and Matt Goodgame, with baby Frankie, were air-lifted from their property at Otane. Photo / Mark Mitchell
The baby has since safely been delivered, Stevie-Lee confirmed.
The mud was up to the top of her gumboots and she fell backward. Matt ended up taking Frankie and carrying their two-year-old daughter Sadie, too.
“I handed the baby over. He [Matt] was a bit more steady on his feet,” Stevie-Lee said.
The couple started to worry when they heard Napier was expected to be without power for two weeks.
“If they’re two weeks, God, how long are we?” Stevie-Lee recalled thinking.
“Wednesday night, I didn’t really sleep, I was just thinking of ways of how we could get out,” Matt said.
He wondered if his dad, who had a jet boat, might be able to get up the river to rescue them, but by Thursday helicopters were flying in thick and fast.
