Cyclone Gabrielle: Family with 10-day-old baby rescued by helicopter after landslides isolate home

A 10-day-old baby girl who had just been released from the hospital’s special care unit was trapped with her family for three days in Hawke’s Bay until a helicopter rescued them.

The Goodgame family home on Dartmoor Rd was completely cut off after the Sacred Hill bridge was washed away and three large slips covered their driveway.

Stevie-Lee Goodgame said she is still in fight or flight mode after trying to clamber off their property with baby Frankie strapped to her front and falling backwards in the mud.

She was worried about supplies after Frankie had been in the Special Care Baby Unit with hypoglycemia.

”I was starting to think if I wasn’t eating properly, because I’m breastfeeding, then my milk would dry up, and we didn’t have any formula.”

Stevie-Lee said she had survivor’s guilt because their house wasn’t flooded, just cut off, whereas her friend in Meanee, who was due for a caesarean on Wednesday, had lost everything.

The friend was rescued from the roof of her home on Tuesday night along with her husband and their four-year-old.

Stevie-Lee and Matt Goodgame, with baby Frankie, were air-lifted from their property at Otane. Photo / Mark Mitchell

The baby has since safely been delivered, Stevie-Lee confirmed.

Stevie-Lee’s husband Matt Goodgame said the family woke on Tuesday morning to a horrendous sight in the aftermath of Cyclone Gabrielle.

”I walked out at the back of the house and heard this rumble, and the whole hill was just coming down straight on to the road.

“It sounded like an earthquake coming.”

There were boulders the size of cars, Matt said.

Matt and a neighbour were able to assess some of the nearby damage.

”It was unbelievable where the river had been and how high it was. It was a pretty scary sight.”

A battery-powered radio got the family through the day on Tuesday as they tuned into news bulletins to learn snippets of the devastation.

They heard on the radio that what’s known to locals as the Sacred Heart Bridge had been swept away.

“We didn’t even think it was possible for that to go,” Matt said.

Stevie Lee tried to walk with Frankie in a front pack to a neighbour’s house.

The mud was up to the top of her gumboots and she fell backward. Matt ended up taking Frankie and carrying their two-year-old daughter Sadie, too.

“I handed the baby over. He [Matt] was a bit more steady on his feet,” Stevie-Lee said.

The couple started to worry when they heard Napier was expected to be without power for two weeks.

“If they’re two weeks, God, how long are we?” Stevie-Lee recalled thinking.

“Wednesday night, I didn’t really sleep, I was just thinking of ways of how we could get out,” Matt said.

He wondered if his dad, who had a jet boat, might be able to get up the river to rescue them, but by Thursday helicopters were flying in thick and fast.

A helicopter landed in a nearby paddock to airlift out some neighbours who had a sick child, Matt said.

They arranged for the helicopter pilot to come back for them after explaining their situation with baby Frankie.

The family quickly packed their things and were taken to Bridge Pā on Thursday afternoon, where they were put on a bus to Hastings.

They eventually met up with Stevie-Lee’s relieved parents, who hadn’t heard from them since 12.30pm on Tuesday.

The couple is thankful they and their two children are safe, but they’re unsure whether it will be weeks or months before they can return home.