Cyclone Gabrielle: Pōrangahau Hub brings smiles to flood-hit Central Hawke’s Bay community

Pauline Macdonald cuts the ribbon to open her new home, accompanied by her nephew Dr David Tipene-Leach, chairman of the Ngāti Kere Hapū Authority.

A Pōrangahau kaumātua who was carried from her home by a firefighter amid the fear and chaos of Cyclone Gabrielle has returned, this time in sunshine and greeted with flowers and whānau.

On February 14, as floodwaters ravaged the isolated Pōrangahau township, 89-year-old Pauline Macdonald did not want to leave the home she loved and had lived in most of her life.

Her daughter Moya, who also lives in the village, says she phoned Pauline 20 minutes before the call for evacuation.

“I said to her, ‘get up to my flat’ but she didn’t want to leave.

“She said ‘I’m all right - I can see the river from here’.”

Moya says while her mum isn’t the oldest kaumātua in the village, “she’s getting up there” and she has been embedded in the Pōrangahau community all her life.

Pauline Macdonald (centre) on the deck of her new home, surrounded by grandchildren and great-grandchildren.

“She was born and bred here and has never moved. She’s a JP, has worked as a cook at the hotel, and at the Post Office in the telephone exchange. Mum has been on every committee available, played golf and tennis and is a life member of the Māori Women’s Welfare League. She’s very involved in the community and a social butterfly.”

Gardening, however, was a special passion.

“She had beautiful gardens. She lived for her gardens. I’d come home from work and she’d have been gardening since 6am with no time for rest.”

Pauline’s gardens were washed away in Cyclone Gabrielle’s floods.

“I wish I’d taken pictures before it all happened. A couple of days before the floods we’d worked in the gardens and built a deck. It was a picture.”

The cyclone washed away those gardens, ruined Pauline’s home and all her belongings. Pauline and the other displaced kaumātua were given temporary accommodation, but the flood had knocked them.

“I feel for her so much, she has lost everything. The flood put them through the mill... all the old people here.”

Seeing how badly Pauline was affected, Moya and her family knew she needed to come home to her whenua.

“We started looking for temporary cabins - we were going to buy one, but then we found the Ngāti Kere Hapū Authority was one step ahead of us.”

The cabins are warm, dry and new, and will shelter some of Pōrangahau’s most vulnerable until their homes can be rebuilt.

With Pōrangahau initially isolated by cyclone-damaged roads, the Ngāti Kere Hapū Authority established the Ngāti Kere Flood Response Group, and formed the Pōrangahau Hub to co-ordinate food, shelter and flood recovery.

One of the many urgent tasks carried out by the flood response group was to source temporary housing for those who had fled flooded homes.

This included sourcing and trucking in cabins.

And one of the recipients of a new, one-bedroom cabin was to be Pauline.

Keri Ropiha, community response co-ordinator for the Pōrangahau Hub, says healthcare issues made cabins an urgent necessity for some of the displaced residents. Pauline’s health was fragile, and she needed to be close to family and on her own land - her whenua, where she could relax and heal from the upheaval.

However - in the interests of not getting her over-excited - everyone involved in the project was sworn to secrecy.

The cabin was trucked from Auckland and delivered to the roadside.

“It sat on the side of the road for a bit. That was worrying. Getting it onto the site wasn’t happening fast enough for me,” says Moya.

“So the family stepped in and brought it on to the site.”

Then there was the electricity to hook up, the water, plumbing, furnishings, and of course the garden.

“Yes, the daughter who doesn’t like gardening - I made her a garden,” Moya says.

On Mothers’ Day, the family took Pauline for a drive. She had no idea what was around the corner.

“Everyone was waiting for her at her new home. She looked up and there were her grandchildren with flowers. There was a ribbon for her to cut. She was speechless, there were tears, it was just beautiful. We had a ceremony and a blessing, and she just loves it here, she’s content. The house looks and feels like it’s always been here. She’s got back some of what she lost.”

The cabins will mostly be temporary. Pauline’s original home is being rebuilt. She can now watch it happen from her window, in the warm.

For community response co-ordinator Keri, it’s one more positive story in what has been a heart-warming response by a small community to a big challenge.

“The Pōrangahau Hub was formed to urgently assist the community, especially the 33 families who couldn’t return to their homes. And the whole of the community responded. We needed to feed and clothe these families and find them somewhere to stay,” she says.

“People with holiday homes in Pōrangahau saw the damage on the news and phoned us, offering their homes for displaced families. Phone calls were coming in before we had a chance to phone out. Then we called people who didn’t know about the disaster; we asked them if we could use their holiday homes. No one said no.

“For the shortfall, especially for those with health issues, we began looking for cabins so people could set them up according to their health needs.”

Cabins weren’t easy to find, as there was a huge demand after the cyclone, but the Ngāti Kere Flood Response Group contacted TAS - Temporary Accommodation Services - and their site assessors were there within two days.

“We showed them where we needed cabins, they did a site assessment, and by the time they left we had an agreement.

“The community did that,” Keri says.

“When the water had gone down the whole community swooped into the village - farmers, residents, everyone that could come, came, with tractors and trucks and trailers. It was like an army but it was all local people. There was no access to Pōrangahau, nobody else could get here to help. The community did it all.”

Because the silt had been cleared and the Hub had assessed needs, done regular welfare checks and collected data, it was easy for TAS to get in and assess the sites and see what could be done.

“They said it was a quick process because the silt was gone, we were organised and we knew what we were asking for.”

Two weeks after that initial visit, cabins had been sourced from Linton and Auckland. There are now five on sites in Pōrangahau and two more coming.

“We were overwhelmed that it actually happened. There was a degree of disbelief. The cabins have a bedroom and kitchen, a lounge, heating... they are new and warm and everyone that has one loves it. We were very grateful and surprised by the quality, these people could be living in cabins for a year or more and we now know they are dry and healthy and safe over winter.

“The big thing for us is taking care of people. We are still serving three meals a day at the clubrooms, because our marae was damaged in the cyclone. We’ve had good feedback from many agencies and a swift response to funding requests because they say we are organised, we have collected good data.

“But it’s our community that have done this. The cyclone was devastating but there have been opportunities here to create social spaces and jobs and turn our minds to the positive.”

For Moya and the rest of Pauline’s family, the provision of the new home has brought relief and respite.

“After what happened, people in our community needed that special something. It’s nice to have mum back here where she belongs.”