Neighbours pluck 94yo man from Tairua flooding, as community bands together

By Finn Blackwell of RNZ

A Palmerston North woman is praising a “community of carers” who came to the rescue of her elderly dad on the flooded Coromandel Peninsula.

A precautionary state of emergency is in place after a tropical storm swept over the area, flooding houses and campgrounds, and cutting off roads.

Debbie Gray’s 94-year-old father was staying at a Tairua bach, when heavy rain started to flood the garage.

Her father was unable to open the garage, with water both inside and surrounding it.

As the weather wasn’t improving, Gray put out an SOS on the Tairua community Facebook page to see if anyone could get to him and open the garage.

“I see that Tairua is flooded, but if he has a car, he could move out of the danger zone,” she wrote.

Gray said she had an incredible response from the community.

“I tell you what, the people were amazing,” she said.

“Honestly, within five minutes, I had responses of ‘We’re heading down there now, we’ve seen him, the car’s out’, so I just can’t say enough for that community – it just rallies around.”

Gray said this wasn’t the first time the community had banded together to check on their neighbours.

“I remember [Cyclone] Gabrielle – and even the one before that – the community just seem to pull together and support one another with things like ‘get out and check on your neighbours, and look out for each other’,

“It’s just incredible.”

Her father’s car was taken out of the garage and moved to a drier spot, Gray said, and his house hadn’t flooded.

She said it was comforting to know people on Facebook were prepared to care for others.

“People heading down and they’ve shared it around, so obviously there’s more than one or two,” Gray said. “There’s a community of carers up there doing amazing work.”

- RNZ