A hero helicopter pilot has recalled how he hovered over roofs and plucked people to safety after the floodwaters from Cyclone Gabrielle came “like a tidal wave”.
Speaking to NZME this afternoon, pilot Joe Faram has been piloting choppers around Hawke’s Bay and the East Coast, dispersing medical and other essential supplies to those isolated and plucking people off roofs when floodwaters consumed their homes.
Faram said it is a grim sight looking down at the battered region from the skies.
“It’s quite devastating now that the true damage and the extent of it is being exposed,” Faram said.
Aerial view of flooding in Wairoa. Photo / Hawke's Bay Civil Defence
“What are you seeing now that the water’s gone down, destroyed homes, destroyed horticultural blocks, all the infrastructure has been hammered such as roads and power lines and it’s a little bit like, where do you start?”
When asked if people will ever be able to live in the homes in Eskdale Valley that have been severely damaged by silt, slash and flood waters, he said “the majority, no”.
“Some of the people we plucked off roofs, they said within 10 minutes it was coming through the doorstep and then it was that the gutter line of their house, like a tidal wave, came down,” he said.
Hawke’s Bay Civil Defence Emergency Management shared footage of Faram piloting a helicopter that rescued an elderly man from his roof in Napier on its Facebook page.
In the video, a helicopter can be seen approaching the area very cautiously as two people hold on to each other as they stand near the corner of a house roof. A satellite dish can be seen just to the left of the rooftop.
One of the pair is decked out in full emergency gear, including an orange high-vis jacket and helmet.
The second person is an elderly man wearing a thin jacket, shorts and slip-on shoes. His arms are close together and his knees slightly bent, as if cold and trying to keep himself balanced.
As his rescuer opens the door to the chopper, the old man reaches a hand out to it and, one foot in front of the other, carefully climbs in to safety.
“Extreme courage, skill and hope on display here,” the post says.
“Thank you to Trevor for providing this incredible footage of a daring rescue at Gilligan Rd [yesterday].
“Our first responders and partner agencies have been working tirelessly. Thank you for what you’re doing to save lives.”
Many people commenting on the post thanked the rescue teams for their work to save people - with some sharing their own tales of rescue, including the family of the man featured in the video.
The daughter of the man shared that the rescue was of her father and stepmother.
Image 1 of 16: Cyclone Gabrielle
Esk Valley
Houses on Shaw Road
Hawkes Bay Today photograph by Warren Buckland 16 February 2023
“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.”
