Cyclone Gabrielle: Tararua District’s farmers still picking up the pieces

Rebecca Greaves on the Pongaroa farm which was impacted by Cyclone Gabrielle a year ago. Photo / Leanne Warr

When warnings came through of a tropical cyclone headed for the east coast in February last year, Rebecca Greaves was prepared.

The day before it struck, she was filling up all the petrol cans on the Pongaroa farm.

Her husband Richard thought she might be a bit dramatic, but he took precautions as well, opening up some gates out the back of the farm.

Overnight, it didn’t seem that bad, Rebecca says.

“I wasn’t awake all night thinking, holy heck, this is bad.”

In the morning, Richard went out to check the farm.

Unbelievably, Rebecca says, they hadn’t lost power, although it happens frequently on the farm, but the impact of the cyclone could be seen in the photos her husband sent her.

Richard Greaves (with daughter Phoebe) patching up fencing with waratahs and netting.

She believes the amount of damage has set the farm back to even before they bought the property.

“At first I felt really devastated about the state of things here.”

Then she started getting reports of how bad it was in Hawke’s Bay.

“I’d talked to my mum on that morning and she said ‘I’ve just rescued the chickens from a metre of water’. They’ve got a huge irrigation dam behind their house.”

Then communication went down and she couldn’t reach any of her family.

“That was probably what I was more concerned about.”

Rebecca grew up in Hawke’s Bay and her parents still live in the same house they lived in when she was born.

She still has a lot of friends and family there and was understandably worried.

Once she understood the full impact of what had happened, Rebecca says she felt guilty for being upset about the farm, knowing that some people had lost homes, or their lives.

Rebecca recalls feeling torn, not knowing if she should try to go up to Hawke’s Bay with supplies and offers of help.

Living through those first few days and dealing with the impact of Cyclone Gabrielle has taken a toll on many in the community - physically, emotionally and financially.

For those who were hardest hit, some are still feeling the emotional impact.

“They don’t feel like they’re necessarily okay,” Rebecca says. “That’s totally normal and understandable.

“It’s really important that people feel that they’re not forgotten.”

As for Rebecca and Richard, they have a lot of work ahead of them to complete repairs.

It hasn’t helped that the year before had been mostly wet.

“The east coast had been hammered time and time again and the cyclone was like the icing on the cake in a way. Then it was winter after that.”

A fence “around the road” had been repaired and a new fence put up, but that was already slumped.

“So now we have to fix it again.”

Damage from the cyclone on the Greaves' Pongaroa farm.

Rebecca says the cost of repairing the damage to the farm is going to be well in excess of $300,000 and even after a year there are still some areas of the property that need repair, such as tracks and fences.

Going through the cyclone and its aftermath has prompted thoughts of being prepared and being self-sufficient.

“I think generally in rural communities we tend to be a bit more prepared than say if you lived in town.

“If you lived in town you probably don’t expect to need a generator and be without power for an extended length of time.”

Rebecca is grateful for organisations such as Rural Support Trust which held events that she says went a long way towards helping boost morale and those in Downer or Tararua Alliance which worked to fix the roads damaged by slips.

Meantime, as the rest of the Pongaroa community continues to pick up the pieces one year after the cyclone hit, Rebecca says everyone is looking out for each other.

“I still think we have a very good community out here which we’re lucky to have.”

Leanne Warr is editor of the Bush Telegraph and has been a journalist on and off since 1996 when she joined the Levin Chronicle. She re-joined NZME in June 2021.