Hastings resident Carrie Fromant-Rose was overwhelmed by the number of strangers who came to help in the wake of Cyclone Gabrielle.
“Everybody here is for you. We’re not strangers, we’re family,” volunteer Angela Boaler said, comforting tearful Hastings resident Carrie Fromant-Rose.
Carrie was overwhelmed by the number of strangers who turned up to help clean up her family house in the wake of Cyclone Gabrielle.
“I just posted on my page. Then my friends sent it to more pages for help,” Carrie said. “It’s just amazing. Cars and people everywhere.”
On Tuesday morning she put the call out and by midday over 30 people had turned up, some coming from as far away as Auckland and Christchurch.
Carrie’s brother Aaron Rose was shocked by the amount of people willing to help.
Angela Boaler is a volunteer from Auckland. She and her colleagues from packaging company Opal Group have been helping in the Bay this week.
“About 30 or 40 Opal people [are] out here trying to help clear the house. We’ll be here all day,” she said. “There’s a lot of people here, but there’s a lot of mud, a lot of belongings to move.”
Volunteers from as far as Auckland and Christchurch help with the clean-up on Gilligan Road in Pakowhai.
Carrie’s family live in several houses around Gilligan Road. All are completely wrecked. Her 89-year-old grandmother has lived here for over 40 years.
“My mum, grandma and uncle [are] down the road - my husband’s family have lost a lot of their house as well. So we’ve got four family houses that were destroyed. It’s a lot,” she said.
Throughout the day, more and more people arrive, bringing shovels and food.
Lily Palmer saw the post on Facebook and came straight to Pakowhai from Haumoana.
“They said that they needed help badly. I’m not doing anything. Why not help out?” she said.
On the other side of Pakowhai, a Chinese father and son are grateful to be alive.
“The helicopter came to rescue my dad,” said Sheng Zhao. “I’m so lucky that my dad is still with me.”
A Chinese family used all their savings to buy a property on Pakowhai Rd three years ago, but Cyclone Gabrielle destroyed their Kiwi dream.
Sheng’s father, 70-year-old Shunyuan Zhao, was in the house by himself when the cyclone hit. His son was in Napier and his wife was on holiday in China.
“I rang my dad about 8:15am,” Sheng said. “The water was already about 20 centimetres high. I told my dad to be safe.”
“After that, there was no power and no [cellphone] signal until about 3pm. I reckoned it was very bad, so I went to the fire station, called the police and tried to rescue my dad. That was very stressful.”
Three years ago, the Zhao family used all their savings to buy a block of farmland, but now Cyclone Gabrielle has destroyed their Kiwi dream.
They had a big vegetable garden with a variety of organic crops. Now it all lies under the mud.
Two hundred metres away on Pakowhai Road, Marie Mcvey’s home is wiped out.
“We’ve spent 23 great years [here],” she said. “But now I don’t know if we can still carry on living here.”
“We had no notice and no warning. So I went inside with the dogs and put towels across the doors and, in the next minute, [saw] the water was coming into the house.
“The whole first floor was [flooded with] water, and I think I might have been the last one to get a helicopter out of here.”
“We need some help from the council, the regional council and the Government. We really do need some help to get rid of all the stuff and furniture. It’s everywhere.”
