Diggers are working quickly to complete a river crossing to enable further access into areas including Rissington and Patoka which are running low on fuel. It was expected the crossing would be completed either Wednesday or Thursday. Video / Adam Pearse
When Patoka couple Billie Marshall and Aiden Udy woke at 5.30am last Monday, they had no idea they may remain stranded for weeks to come.
“The rain got heavy Monday night and didn’t stop. We got up to assess the damage, not thinking it would be as bad as it was,” Billie says.
Although there was no damage on the property they live at with Billie’s mum and partner, a few of the farmers in their area weren’t so lucky. But the community is rallying around to help those less fortunate.
“They’ve lost a lot of land from slips and also lost stock. We’ve been lucky to have a very close community. Puketitiri, Patoka and Rissington have all come together to organise supply drops and figure out where help is needed the most.”
Billie says where the Rissington Bridge once was has now become a drop-off point for supplies which are being boated across the river.
The site where the Rissington Bridge was is now used to pick up supplies by boat.
“We are carrying everything up the bank to be divided up in the community. Rissington was definitely hit the hardest as the Mangoane River flooded and wiped out a lot of homes in that area.”
A flooded Waihau Rd.
Having a dairy farm close by has had its advantages.
“We were able to fill up our milk bottles with fresh milk from the farm. Everything else in the tank had to get dumped. They’ve had to dry out all their cows as the milk trucks are unable to get to them and it is very uncertain when our roads will be capable of having milk tankers on them.”
Aiden Udy makes the most of his neighbour's milk supply.
While the tiny home Billie and Aiden have been working on survived the heavy rain and wind unscathed, they haven’t been able to devote any more time to their project.
“We would love to be working on it while we are stuck out here but there is so much to be done in the community it’s hard to find time. We nearly have the exterior completed and then will be able to focus on the inside. Once it’s done we will decide whether we sell it or keep it and buy our own land to put it on. We know there will be a lot of people that need accommodation after this disaster so it could be useful to someone who has lost their home.”
A home in Rissington.
Billie and her family were fairly well stocked with farm produce but began to worry they would run out of general household items.
“Being on a lifestyle block we have our own meat and eggs and a vege garden. So we were lucky in that aspect. We also have council employee Izzy Crawshaw out here who has been amazing at getting the army and Civil Defence out to drop off essential supplies.”
Their first community meeting was held on the Wednesday after the cyclone and by Thursday and Friday some essential supplies were being flown in including medications, nappies and baby formula. Although the community is still without power, they have generators to run freezers.
“Some farmers have had massive generators flown in to power their places. There’s no saying when we’ll get power but there are still a lot of homes in isolated communities here that don’t even have generators.”
The community has been hard at work building a ford bridge to help connect the district back to town.
“This will be our temporary bridge until our Bailey bridge is built. They are working hard at getting this temporary bridge done as we still have no clue when this Bailey bridge will even be started. The council and engineers came down today in large numbers to look and then left again.”
Waihau Rd where the usually small creek has taken out a bridge.
As Billie and Aiden’s jobs are in town, they have been filling their days helping out.
“One of the farmers in the community has a block of land around us so each day we’ve been checking on their cattle and moving them as the owners have a lot of work to do on the rest of their farm. Today we went down to where the Rissington Bridge once stood to help carry out supplies. The days go fast but there’s always something to be done.”
Billie says the hardest part is seeing the devastation in town, knowing what some of their friends have lost and not being able to get in there and help them.
“The first few days after the cyclone we couldn’t get reception so we had limited communication with town and didn’t know if our family and friends were safe and they didn’t even know if we were alive as they hadn’t heard from us. We had no idea of the scale of the damage.”
Remaining upbeat has been helped greatly by the community rallying together, she says.
“Aiden and I have lived in Patoka for over a year now and haven’t had a lot to do with the community apart from the people we’ve met through my mum. But meeting everyone down our road and in the wider community has been awesome. There’s some great people out here and it’s been nice to have a laugh in amongst all this mayhem.”
A private helicopter used to fly in goods from town to the community has been a godsend.
“We are able to tell family in town to drop off stuff we need to an address in Puketapu and the next day our things have been flown in down the road for us. This has been amazing and I can’t imagine it being cheap so it’s incredible for someone to donate their time and helicopter like that to help out.”
What Billie is most looking forward to is seeing her dog who is staying with her dad in town.
“He’s nearly 19 years old and not being able to see him when I want has been hard. I’m also really looking forward to seeing all our friends and catching up.”
She says hearing about the looting in town has put them off wanting to go back in once they can.
“It’s horrible that people even think to do that after something like this. Even though we are isolated, we are also very lucky to have an amazing community and don’t have to worry about any of that.”
