Noel Pedersen died in Australia aged 84 after a major stroke. His family say he suffered from declining health since he narrowly escaped with his life from Cyclone Gabrielle flooding in Esk Valley. Photo / Caird Family
Noel Pedersen died in Australia aged 84 after a major stroke. His family say he suffered from declining health since he narrowly escaped with his life from Cyclone Gabrielle flooding in Esk Valley. Photo / Caird Family
Noel Pedersen’s family say they feel as if Cyclone Gabrielle has taken another victim, leaving nearly nothing behind to remember him by.
Pedersen died in Australia about five months after narrowly escaping with his life in the storm that smashed Esk Valley on February 14.
The 84-year-old was paralysed by a stroke as floodwaters came up to eye-level at the cottage he and his wife Geneva lived in.
Daughter Genevieve Caird, on whose property Pedersen had lived before the cyclone, said the last five months of his life were full of stress because of financial pressures and trying to find a home.
“I feel a little bit ripped off because his last five months I was busy working and trying to keep us afloat and I should have had that time to spend with him,” Caird said.
She said the floods had also stripped 84 years of memories from them.
“Even now, when I look in his room, I have nothing left of his to remember him by.”
The Cairds, Genevieve, her husband James and their 11-year-old daughter Chloe, moved to Perth with Noel and Geneva and had enough to get a deposit on a house and buy a car with their insurance payout.
Genevieve said the community got her family through the floods, but they don’t expect to ever return to live in Hawke’s Bay and Eskdale.
“The biggest thing I miss is probably the community, the people who looked after us because without that I don’t know where we would have ended up.
“This shouldn’t be something that is hanging over Hawke’s Bay’s head for the next ‘x’ amount of years, but I think unfortunately it will be and the Bay will not be the same again.”
Pedersen had more strokes after February 14 and died on June 27, after a major stroke that affected his lungs.
He had six children, nine grandchildren and six great-grandchildren.
The aftermath of flooding in the building Noel and Geneva Pedersen lived in when Cyclone Gabrielle hit. James Caird said water came up to their eye level. Photo / Caird family
Son-in-law James Caird said the family could see that Pedersen had been going downhill since the cyclone and his death was most likely because of it.
“He never recovered from the stroke in the flood, it almost killed him really. I think he had hypothermia from it, he was lying in the mud and water for 14 hours.
“He is a man of finances, he liked to be in control of everything and not knowing what was happening the whole time you could see him stressing and going downhill the whole time.”
James said Pedersen was “very witty” and liked to joke.
He and Geneva owned a fruit and vegetable shop in Auckland before moving to Hawke’s Bay to be with family.
“We don’t have curtains and blinds [in our new house] yet and we are living on the bones of our feet still,” James said.
“The Government, they are all fighting each other about who is going to pay the money when the people are struggling, they are bleeding.”
James Pocock joined Hawke’s Bay Today in 2021 and writes breaking news and features, with a focus on environment, local government and post-cyclone issues in the region. He has a keen interest in finding the bigger picture in research and making it more accessible to audiences. He lives in Napier. james.pocock@nzme.co.nz
