Cyclone Gabrielle: ‘I could hear her screaming all night’ - Whitewater kayaker twice dove into floods to save lives in Eskdale

Max Robertson and dad Hector Roberston outside their home in Eskdale. Photo / Paul Taylor

“I have to help them.”

That was the last thing Hector Robertson heard from his son Max before he jumped into the floodwaters which ravaged the Esk Valley last Tuesday.

Max Robertson had earlier helped his father, their dogs, and two other people - who floated onto their property clinging to a drum - find safety on a two-storey balcony next door.

The former whitewater kayaking instructor decided to jump back into the floodwaters to help other neighbours in Eskdale.

“They have a little girl so I just jumped in and swam to them,” Max said.

Those neighbours - a couple and their daughter - were relieved to see him come out of the floodwaters and climb into their house.

“The water was just rising and rising and I put my torch on the front window and the water outside their house was higher than it was inside.

“I thought a log is going to come through soon and blast in here.”

The four of them plus two dogs climbed through a window and clambered onto the roof.

A wrecked car sticking out of mud and silt in Esk Valley this week. Photo / Paul Taylor

As they waited in the dark, a couple in their 60s and 70s floated past, crying for help, after being swept away from their car on SH5.

“As I was on the roof I heard a man screaming,” Max said.

“He was just hanging onto the gutter, so I dragged him up.”

The man’s wife was swept further down the valley.

“I heard her screaming as she came past, and I could not see her. She got jammed up in the glasshouses [about 50m away] and I could hear her screaming all night.”

Max reassured the woman’s husband that he would go after her as soon as daylight broke, which took hours.

“As soon as I could see her in the water, I just dived in and swam.

“She was blue [when I got to her] and was just hanging on. I took all my clothes off and wrapped her up.”

Max helped her get into a safer position then swam toward rescuers in boats, who were saving people on roofs.

Friends of Max heard him shouting and a boat managed to get to the woman.

Flood damage inside Max's home in Eskdale. Photo / Paul Taylor

The woman was flown to hospital and returned in a much healthier state this week, to thank Max at his flood-ravaged home.

“It was cool,” Max said. “It is quite funny, because just before she got airlifted to hospital she looked at me and said ‘I owe you a beer’.

“I laughed and said ‘when you are out we will have a beer together’.

“She said to me when she came round this week ‘I still owe you that beer’.”

All the people Max helped last Tuesday survived.

“Everyone is like ‘you’re a hero’, but I say ‘I’m not a hero man. I was just doing what anyone who could do something would do’.”

He said the ordeal was still sinking in and it was difficult to sleep at night.

His father, Hector, said:

“I knew he would do it. I was worried but he just said ‘I have to help them’ and away he went.”

Hector was rapt to see his boy alive later that day.

“I was relieved like f***.”

A week on from the floods, nine deaths have been confirmed in Hawke’s Bay. However, many in the community expect that number to rise.

Max’s aunty has set up a Givealittle page to help her nephew rebuild, after the floods ravaged his home and belongings.