The community is rallying together to cope with the biggest crisis the town has faced in living memory and as Ormond said, personal circumstances are not stopping neighbours helping neighbours.
“When we went to the marae there were some women there who have lost their whole homes and they were working there helping other people.”
Emily Lloyd was mucking in with her young children cleaning the town’s streets.
“We just want to do what we can, knock on doors and follow people around just to help. We are in a situation where we are not affected as badly, we are not in the trenches, so we just want to help people because it’s horrible for them.”
Wairoa School principal Jo Vennell was also lending a hand with her students, many of whom have lost homes themselves.
“They are busy working away, chipping in where they can. I think they are in a bit of shock. There will be a lot of stressed people for quite a while.”
Ormond and her husband Cyril who recently suffered a stroke were saved by strangers who carried them through raging floodwaters.
“Water was everywhere, and it got deeper and deeper and then these people in a white ute turned up.”
The family did not hesitate to put their own safety at risk to save the elderly couple.
Wairoa was hit hard by Cyclone Gabrielle. Photo / RNZ / Jonty Dine
“They carried him out and the water was really deep, and their two sons held my hand and they put us in the car. He was rubbing my back the little boy and he was just so kind he held my hand and rubbed my back.”
She said the family are her saviours as her husband would not have been able to make it out of the home on his own.
A little further north, residents of Waikaremoana feel abandoned - without food or water.
“We have been abandoned for a long time, but this is the worst I’ve ever seen,” lifelong Waikaremoana resident Tahuri o te Rangi Trainor Tate said.
“Waikaremoana is off the grid as far as I’m concerned with the system.”
Tate said he feels the community has been forgotten.
He and his whānau travelled to Wairoa on Saturday to stock up on food as he said there are about 300 people in Waikaremoana who have not eaten much for days.
“There’s no food in Waikaremoana, we can’t get food here.”
Team co-ordinator for local charity Family Start Carla Hiko has been busy handing out sausages to hungry locals desperate to feed themselves and their children.
She agrees the response has been too slow, particularly for those north of the Wairoa River.
“It seems to have taken forever to even get to this point today, in terms of need we knew the second day that it was obviously the most hit because of the damage but it’s like every day there are shocking stories that are coming out.”
