A person trapped by rising floodwaters was rescued from a rooftop in Hawkes Bay.
Video / HB Civil Defence Emergency Management Group
As Cyclone Gabrielle ravaged parts of the North Island, laying waste to lives, land and livelihoods, tales of incredible heroism and hope have emerged.
Emergency services, Defence personnel and ordinary Kiwis banded together to rescue hundreds of people from the rising waters.
Here are a few of the countless tales to emerge from the carnage.
A mad cycle
Chance Wharekawa was brought to the Flaxmere Community Centre after he cycled for two hours in knee-deep water before helping his partner out of quickly rising floodwaters in Pakowhai.
He bumped into a lifeguard rescue team saving animals, who checked out the house for him and found it empty. The lifeguard lent Wharekawa his phone, and he managed to reach Melissa who was safe in Flaxmere, where they were reunited.
“Hearing her voice, the hugest feeling of relief I’ve ever felt.”
It was nice to see people helping each other, he said.
“That’s what I like about this situation, is like, the way it brings everybody together. It’s really beautiful to see a community come together like this, support each other.”
Wharekawa said there was no plan yet to return home, and he was taking it day by day.
Doggy rescue
Daryl Grant with his sister-in-law's dog Lucy, after rescuing her from the family property at Pakowhai.
Darryl Grant was surprised to find his sister-in-law’s dog Lucy in their home on Brookfields Rd in Pakowhai, an area that has been heavily evacuated after Cyclone Gabrielle hit on Tuesday.
Despite the floodwaters reaching up to six metres at its peak, 10-year-old Lucy was found alive and well, albeit a bit shaken.
”We thought we were going to find a dead dog,” Grant said.
”We’re going to call her Lucky Lucy now.”
Other animals at the property weren’t so fortunate. Four cows, 13 sheep and half a dozen chickens perished in the flood.
Some Pakowhai residents are returning to their homes today after evacuation so they can survey the damage to their properties.
Like many other areas, the roads are covered in mud and several types of produce are scattered everywhere, including apples and pumpkins.
A new whānau
Taneshia Gill with Henare O’Keefe, a former Hastings District Councillor.
The Flaxmere Community Centre has become a home to about 25 people - babies, grandparents, young couples, displaced whānau.
Evacuees had become whānau in just a day or two, said worker Taneshia Gill.
“They’re a part of the family now. They’re not allowed to leave Flaxmere at all, and one of them, when she did reunite with her family, as she was leaving she was like, ‘I feel like I’m going on an overseas trip. This is my family now, I don’t ever want to go.’”
Gill said they had so many donations, they were sorting and delivering supplies to other Civil Defence evacuation centres in Hawke’s Bay.
“We’ve had people that we know from the community that have loads of kids, 10 kids or more, and they’re coming in and donating things, and their babies are like, ‘We’ve made parcels for other kids.’
“Just that kind of stuff, it just really warms our heart knowing the community is in it together - it won’t matter how long it’s gonna take.”
Megan Meads was helping out at the hall.
Much-needed gear at the Flaxmere Community Centre.
“We’ve got pillows, blankets, duvets, babies’ sheets and clothing there, and also sleeping bags and loads of towels and sanitary items.”
They put out a call for items on Facebook, and within two hours the donations were already piled high.
Seasonal workers rescued
Fola Samoa supervises a group of 12 men who work at a Johnny Appleseed orchard in Pakowhai.
He said they were eating breakfast when they realised how bad the flooding had become.
“One of the men came to me and said ‘boss, there’s a river come through to our house’.
“I walked through to the front door and I was shocked, because our driveway was like a, like a river.”
Samoa said it was “like a tsunami” - and reminded them of the devastating tsunami that wreaked havoc in Samoa in 2009.
Fola Samoa, an RSE worker in Hastings, was rescued with his colleagues via helicopter from the roof of one of their buildings.
They tried to pack some essentials into a van about 11am, but it was too late - instead they threw their belongings onto the roof of their home.
The group was on the roof for four hours watching the water rise, before flagging down a helicopter which rescued them. They were taken to the Hastings Sports Centre evacuation centre,
Cassandra Robson, 33, with her daughter Skyla, age 6, at Piha Beach. They were rescued from Karekare Beach during Cyclone Gabrielle. Photo / Dean Purcell
Cassandra Robson, 33, and her daughter Skyla, 6, were trapped in their Karekare home for about 24 hours from Monday night until they could hitch a ride out.
“We were luckily taken back with them through Karekare. We had to go in a tiny little car with a cat, my daughter and two guys ... and we came to the point where we had to get out of the car because it was that dangerous that the cliff was going to fall on top of the car while we were in it.”
One of the men in the car had a chainsaw he was getting out of the car at certain points to cut branches and debris in their path on the road.
“It was so scary. The road was literally barely meters wide,” Robson said.
“We’re lucky to be alive and there are people worse off than we are. We’re just grateful and thankful for an incredible community as well coming to look for us and make sure we’re safe, and now let’s do the same for other people.”
Pilots save hundreds
About a dozen helicopters from the Defence Force, rescue services and private operators plucked up to 400 people to safety across Hawke’s Bay this week.
Rotorforce Helicopters boss and chief pilot Joe Faram described the mad dash to rescue people trapped on roofs. Some were in poor condition.
“There was one very trying situation I was involved in where an elderly lady was stuck up a tree and her husband was on the roof, and by the time we managed to extract them, I had to fly them directly to hospital, because she was quite hypothermic and very weak.
“I also had one case where I flew a man off a roof and he had his leg in plaster and a whole lot of young children and I flew a young couple off with a newborn.”
Faram also flew during Cyclone Bola in Gisborne and said the devastation this time was just as bad. He made rescues in Puketapu, Waipawa and around Hastings and Napier.
“This is serious devastation; bridges are washed out, there’s no power, no cellphone coverage. So we’re just flying around [seeing] people on homes and on their roofs and having to fly in there and pick them up evacuate them and some cases animals as well.”
Faram said flying conditions were difficult and extracting people was nothing short of unbelievable.
“Very tricky flying, landing on the roofs with the helicopter. The Air Force was here - they did some winching. The local rescue helicopter did some winching on the roofs we couldn’t land on because of trees or power lines.”
The recovery from the flooding would be difficult for many of those rescued, he said.
“There’s going to be a lot of homeless people and a lot of homes destroyed. I just couldn’t believe the water level wasn’t just up to the door step - it was going over the top of the roof right on the edges of the city which is quite unbelievable.
“So, there’s going to be a lot of people who’ve lost 100 per cent of their belongings and their homes.”
Second Lieutenant Judge Gregory said the NZ Army teams had rescued about 200 people, with that number still climbing. At one stage, it was reported 97 rescue teams were in action.
In Hastings, the Army was operating with seven Unimogs, and a police officer was allocated to each truck to help with navigation and traffic control.
Gregory said the people they rescued were glad to see them.
“Heaps of waves and smiles, but there’s quite a bit of heartbreak when we are driving past,” he said. “When we pick up people, they are pretty grateful.”
Crew on three Royal New Zealand Air Force helicopters rescued 23 people and five dogs, including by winching people off roofs of houses. Two pallets of medical supplies were also delivered to a medical centre in Napier.
On Wednesday, a small helicopter which appears to be a Robinson R-44, though the identity of its pilot and owner have not been released publicly, rescued an elderly man from a sliver of roof as the waters rose in Napier.
The pilot perched one skid on the roof and held the aircraft steady, allowing the man and rescuers to clamber aboard.
An elderly man is rescued via helicopter from his home in Napier yesterday. Image / Hawke's Bay Civil Defence
The daughter of the man said that the rescue was of her father and stepmother.
“One hundred per cent my family are alive thanks to this rescue. They are okay by the way - just in shock. We are so lucky they had the strength to climb out the windows and onto the roof.
“Thank goodness for these people ... can’t believe it,” she says.
Another woman writes that her family was rescued after “hours of agony”.
“We lost everything except the most important thing in that water - our family - and that is because of you.”
Northland’s Ash Nayyar and his wife Mamti clung to the outside of a fire engine as they were rescued in the dark from their Awakino Point home about 4.30am on Tuesday, amid driving rain and rapidly rising floodwaters from the Awakino River.
The Kaipara District Council councillor Nayyar was up early, meditating, ahead of meeting up with Northland Regional Council Kaipara councillor John Blackwell to continue checking on the Dargaville community.
“My wife looked out into the darkness from the house and said, ‘You won’t be going anywhere’.”
Swirling floodwaters were rapidly rising through their deck, about half a metre off the ground. Nayyar rang 111.
“It just happened overnight. It was life and death,” Nayyar said.
The fire engine, loaded with half a dozen people clinging to its outside, drove along State Highway 14 towards town, into the darkness from their home on the eastern outskirts of Dargaville to a nearby safe point at the distinctive giant grain silos alongside the highway not far from their property.
“The water levels were rising quickly. My wife was praying as we clung to the side of the fire engine.”
One of the other evacuees clinging to the fire engine was a guest from the Willing Workers on Organic Farms (Woofer) project who was staying with the Nayyars.
Nayyar said a lot was going on around them in the darkness at the grain silos as about 10 soaked evacuees gathered. Business owners were at their premises all around the light industrial area trying to secure their properties. There were flashing lights in the raging wind and rain.
“I was shivering. I remember a kind man, a volunteer there to help us, giving me his jacket,” Nayyar said.
The first-term KDC councillor then got the opportunity to see his council’s Dargaville Civil Defence evacuation centre - where he would end up staying for the night on Tuesday - first-hand.
A floating horse
Rocket the horse was saved.
As flood waters surrounded her Waiohiki home on Tuesday, Chloe McGill saw a horse in the paddock and began running toward it, before seeing another horse also swimming in the flood water.
She ran toward the floating horse, named Rocket, cutting a fence to get to it and then removing its cover, which was weighing her down.
“She had energy, so there were about five of us there we actually had to roll her onto her back and push her over which took a lot of strength because she wasn’t helping us at all. The horse was nearly dead at that point.”
Once she was rolled over, McGill said she gained some steam and they were able to walk her onto their paddock.
McGill said while Rocket has a few small cuts she is “grazing and loving life” now.
Rescue at sea
As Cyclone Gabrielle made its way down from Northland via Auckland to the East Coast, the storm created huge swells that pushed a catamaran and its 70-year-old skipper off their anchorage at Great Barrier Island early on Tuesday.
With the boat’s motor failing shortly after, the man rushed out a mayday call at 2.30am before drifting helplessly over bucking 6m-8m waves as far as near Whangārei and then back 100km out to sea.
Police Maritime Unit Senior Sergeant Garry Larsen said the storm was so “extreme” even the police rescue boat could not make headway and had to turn around.
“It was extremely dangerous,” he said.
“The man’s basically been dead in the water, he hasn’t had any ability to control the vessel. His sails were inoperable and he had no propulsion systems working.”
Rescue boats and helicopters tried multiple times to save him, but it was only once Navy frigate Te Mana sailed into the heart of Cyclone Gabrielle’s storm that the man was eventually picked up.
Larsen praised rescuers, calling them “some of the best” in the business and said it was a timely reminder for boaties to stay off the water in the coming days.
“I’d recommend no one go out to sea in these sort of conditions,” he said.
“Even going forward once the cyclone goes away, there are incredible swells coming through to New Zealand from the east for a number of days to come - so will still be rough conditions for a long time.”
With the catamaran pitching violently, the helicopter crew was unable to winch onto its deck. Photo / NZDF
Navy divers save a boatie stranded in Cyclone Gabrielle ravaged waves up to 8m high. Photo / NZDF
The ultimate sacrifice
Volunteer firefighter, veterinarian and father Dave van Zwanenberg died helping evacuate residents in Muriwai, West Auckland, in a massive landslide.
He was one of two firefighters trying to dig a trench behind a woman’s Motutara Rd, Muriwai home on Monday night to divert water after being called to the property due to flooding.
As the pair worked, a giant slab of the hillside above them gave way - inundating the property with a mountain of sodden mud and debris.
Volunteer firefighter Dave van Zwanenberg lost his life in a huge Muriwai slip. Photo / Supplied
The body of van Zwanenberg was pulled from the wreckage two days later. His colleague Craig Stevens was rescued and is fighting for his life in hospital.
The woman who lived in the property made a heartfelt post on social media, saying she has been wrestling with her emotions since the disaster and knows she is lucky to be alive.
“It is so incredibly horrible. This man had a family that loved him and put his life on the line to help myself and others. Words can not do justice to that and I have been extremely upset.”
Aerial photographs show the extent of damage caused by landslips at Muriwai. Photo / George Heard
First and foremost, a family man, Dave was dedicated to spending quality time with his children and building a life to nurture their growth.
“We decided that Muriwai and its beautiful community was the perfect place for this.”
She said her late husband was blessed with the unique abilities that few possess, to not only survive but thrive in extreme environments and circumstances, performing complex tasks and caring for others calmly under pressure.
