Cyclone Gabrielle insurance lesson from a Patoka farming family that faced a shortfall: ‘Don’t just pay your bill and move on’

A Hawke’s Bay farming family stung by Cyclone Gabrielle say the insurance lessons they’ve learned can help others prepare for severe weather events.

The Thomsen family in Patoka experienced extensive damage on their Lindholm Farm from the intense overnight rain as the target="_blank">cyclone lashed Hawke’s Bay in February 2023.

The family faced an immeasurable amount of work ahead to get the farm back on track and brothers Hamish and Greg worked together alongside father Hugh Thomsen.

Hamish said the event was a “kick in the butt” to review and make sure the family fully understood what they had insured and what that would look like in any future event.

“I went through our policies – line by line. We had our water system insured for $5000 when the damage sustained took a $30,000 bill to replace. That is a big shortfall.”

Their advice: “Don’t just pay your bill and move on, reflect on the year that has been for your business and ask questions if you want clarity.”

That is exactly what the family did, and bought generators, jerry cans and fencing gear, and have even purchased a digger and bulldozer.

Thomsen family’s Cyclone Gabrielle experience

Lindholm Farm was turned into a swathe of slips and debris and part of the family was cut off with roading out of action, access to town eliminated by a bridge wash-out.

With the three generations, Hugh Thomsen, son Greg and grandson Rupert (now 18 months old), living on the farm, they coordinated with Hamish in Napier for outside help and supplies.

From his home in Marewa, the accountant quickly became the conduit between town and country for the family.

Patoka brothers Greg Thomsen (left) and Hamish Thomsen.

“I would drive out to Rissington, where the previous bridge was, with jerry cans of petrol to keep the generators going. They would then be rafted across to Greg on the other side. It was rigmarole, but it worked.

“We would have one ute on one side of the river for running supplies from town and another on the Patoka side for getting to and from the farm.”

Hamish said they lost an estimated 40 to 50 hectares of grazeable land as he took on the job of navigating insurance claims associated with the damage.

“Once the hillsides gave way, so did the fences, water troughs and pipes,” said Hamish.

The brothers still had several dams still intact across the farm able to provide vital water for animals.

“Stock can go without feed but they can’t go without water. We were able to get gates open that allowed them to move through paddocks to the dams for water.”

When asked what some of the hardest parts of the process were Hamish said the seven-wire roadside fencing that took six months to get back to a secure standard.

Over a year later the brothers still had another 5km of fencing to go and are taking the opportunity to embrace the future of the farm.

“It does create opportunities for redesigning and shaping fences to best fit our farm business today and in the future and was the final nudge we needed to invest in our own post-hole rammer.”