Waking to cyclone havoc and blackout

A109 Light Utility Helicopter flight with mayor Gisborne City from the air in November 2023.

A year ago today we woke to the new reality of what Cyclone Gabrielle had wrought the previous day and overnight — although that reality took days to emerge from the water and a communication blackout.

It was a storm of huge intensity, with high winds and half a metre of rain dumped in 24 hours on an already saturated district.

For hundreds of people, their living nightmare arrived in the dark — in Te Karaka and towards Ormond along the Waipaoa River that breached its banks early that morning, in the city in low-lying areas along the Waimatā River, and in numerous other areas where properties became waterways. Many had to self-evacuate, grabbing precious things if they could.

Civil Defence and firefighting volunteers organised the evacuation of Te Karaka as floodwaters rose fast through homes well before dawn. John Coates lost his life in the river water flooding through his property near the township.

By daylight, it had stopped raining. Rivers were still raging, some having reached record levels, some carrying massive loads of forestry debris and uprooted trees. Landslides scoured our hills. Bridges and roads had been taken out. Flat areas had become lakes.

We lost power, internet and cellphone reception district-wide. The city’s water pipeline had been severed in numerous places. Many people were essentially in the dark about what was happening.

Only the good people of Te Karaka knew what had happened to them until February 15, when news reports began covering their devastating situation. About 500 people spent the 14th on two hills near the township, not knowing whether help was on the way or not (it wasn’t), and not starting to come down until the following morning.

Families and communities were cut off all around the district. It took many weeks to get power back to some homes in remote areas, and to reconnect the East Coast via a 2.2km road bypassing the smashed Hikuwai No.1 bridge between Tolaga Bay and Tokomaru Bay. Some rural communities are still badly affected by damaged and dangerous roads.

Our three main primary industries have all suffered major impacts from Gabrielle and the other severe weather events of the past two years, with knock-on effects right across the economy.

The recovery effort has been mammoth, dominating many lives ever since Cyclone Gabrielle, following just a month after Cyclone Hale, and it still has a long way to go.

A highlight and source of great comfort for so many of our most badly affected citizens has been the way neighbours and communities have come together. Long may that last.