Hawke’s Bay’s evacuees and flood victims: From 3am police door-knocks to ladders over the fence

Follow live coverage of the East Coast storms here

Swelling seas and a bursting river forced more than 100 Hawke’s Bay residents from their homes as water crept over amidst a storm that pelted the North Island’s east coast.

A State of Emergency was declared on Wednesday morning in Wairoa and Heretaunga, with 115 people evacuated from Wairoa as of 10.30am and 44 people in the evacuation centre at Haumoana School as of 11am.

Evacuations began around 3am in Haumoana, while many Wairoa residents started evacuating around 7am and 8am as high tide approached.

Below are the stories of some of those people.

Wairoa: ‘Never, never been anywhere near this before’

Paul Toothill, a Wairoa stock buyer and president of the Wairoa Racing Club, lives in Kopu Rd on the northern side of the Wairoa River and said he had never seen the river come up over the road.

“Not in Cyclone Bola, not in Cyclone Gabrielle.

On Wednesday morning, he watched its waters come up the road and reach his letterbox.

“I’ve evacuated the family this morning, and I’ve got a ladder over the back fence to get out if I have to,” he said at the time.

The peak was around the 8.45am high tide.

“I blame the regional council,” he said. “The bar is blocked.”

Toothill added: “The water came right up to my doorstep, it was lapping over the concrete, I’m very lucky it didn’t come any further.

Speaking about three hours after the high tide, and concerned the river bar at the mouth had not opened, he reiterated: “I’ve been here more than 30 years, it’s never, never been anywhere near this before.”

It had, however, receded quickly with the lowering of the tide – “so quickly you’d hardly know now”.

Wairoa resident Carol Goldsmith was torn between staying at her Kowhai Pl home or evacuating as floodwaters crept in.

“The water is continuously rising,” Goldsmith said at 9.15am.

“It has filled up our carport, our back lawn is like a lake, [at] the front it is almost through our fence and I think the people on our street are evacuating now.”

She was in two minds about whether to stay or leave her home.

“I know I need to get out. It is very hard, it is almost at the front door of my house,” she said.

“I don’t know how bad it is going to get, but I don’t want to wait until then.”

She said the flooding in her area was worse than in Cyclone Gabrielle and she felt more could have been done with the emergency response.

“We got the Civil Defence alert this morning, but that is about it. We don’t really know what else is going on.”

Flooding at Kowhai Pl, several streets away from the Wairoa River banks, on Wednesday morning. Photo / Carol Goldsmith

Waiora resident Vevean Pao said at 8.30am she expected her home on Kopu Rd to be flooded very soon.

When she woke up at 6am, she immediately moved her belongings to a higher place and had evacuated by 7am.

“I looked at the window and I just knew [I was going to be flooded]... the river was running down the driveway soon after.”

Pao said they are sheltering at her daughter’s home 7km out of the township on higher ground.

Her daughter survived Cyclone Gabrielle last year and “was fully prepared”.

Pao had only recently moved from Australia and was thankful for her daughter’s help.

“Our house got flooded… we were prepared this time,” Pao’s daughter said.

Haumoana: Woken at 3.30am by police banging on the door

Haumoana resident James Ostergren has spent the morning at the Haumoana School evacuation centre with his family, after they were asked to evacuate at 3.30am on Wednesday from their Holden Ave home.

“We were just happily sleeping in bed and all of a sudden there was a bang, bang, bang on the door and the police officer said that there was a good chance that the ocean might come over and there was a flood risk and that we should evacuate

“He said that we should evacuate within half an hour and either get to Hastings or up here to the school.”

He said Cyclone Gabrielle felt worse.

“We got a bit of flooding through the garage and almost into the house in the cyclone, so we are always a bit anxious when the rain is coming down like it was.

“I didn’t feel too bad [this morning] because with the cyclone the house was really shaking. It felt quite different.

“With the cyclone, we were worried about the river whereas this time it is more about the ocean.”

When he left his house, with his wife and two children and their dog, he said the flooding was not too bad near his home. He said the team at the evacuation staff had been amazing.

“It is great here. They had the mats set out and people here have been really good with information.

“It is nice and warm and you get a little bit of a feeling like we had with the cyclone and afterwards where the community came together and chipped in. So there is that positive vibe.”

Haumoana resident James Ostergren has spent the morning at the Haumoana School evacuation centre with his family, after being asked to evacuate at 3.30am on Wednesday from their Holden Ave home, close to the Haumoana shops. Photo / Gary Hamilton-Irvine

Friends Chelsea Tallnash-Pitt and Lucy Evans arrived in Hawke’s Bay on Tuesday and were only just settling into the freedom camping site at Haumoana when they were evacuated at 8.30pm.

“I was making noodles and there was a knock on the door asking us to evacuate,” Evans said.

She said firefighters were there soon after the women evacuated the campsite and the sea was “wild”.

“When we first arrived there were puddles forming but when we left it was getting progressively worse,” Tallnash-Pitt said.

They were told to head to Haumoana School and spent the night there in their campervan.

Friends Chelsea Tallnash-Pitt and Lucy Evans arrived in Hawke's Bay on Tuesday and were just settling into the freedom camping site at Haumoana when they were evacuated at 8.30pm. Photo / Gary Hamilton-Irvine

Haumoana resident Julia Hughes lives on Beach Rd and could see the waves surging over the “crest” along the shoreline from her lounge at high tide around 8.30am.

Hughes was not evacuated because her home was on higher ground, but Fire and Emergency New Zealand visited about 7am.

“They just gave us information about where things were at and just letting us know they had closed the roads to incoming traffic to Haumoana,” Hughes said.

She said there were concerns the Haumoana Playcentre could flood as it did during Cyclone Gabrielle last year.

“We are lucky that everyone from the council and Fenz and Civil Defence are all out here making sure we have the best information and are prepared,” she said.

“We are prepared to go if it comes to that, but we are happy to stay put for now.”