People in Tokomaru Bay are working to reconnect the town after being cut off by flooding and road damage.
Video / George Heard
Milling for days on end around their one flickering internet connection, the locals of the isolated seaside community of Tokomaru Bay mirror every other residential hub in the Gisborne region.
For the 500-odd people living 90km north of Gisborne, this source of information and communication is the local fire station, where around 20 listless locals were waiting on Friday evening - on foot and in their cars, attempting to get some WiFi connection.
The small town of Tokomaru Bay on SH35 has been isolated from the world with only one Starlink at the local fire station. Photo / George Heard
“As you can see, there’s devastation everywhere. All the access is cut off. There’s about three or four bridges taken out, quite a lot of stuff coming down the river,” says local Johnny Pethybridge.
“It’s been hard. It’s been hard to communicate with people but I got hold of my brother down South Island yesterday and I got a text from my mother. I still haven’t heard from my dad but I know he’s all good.”
In Gisborne town centre this phenomenon is magnified by several hundred people waiting for over an hour to get 10 minutes of WiFi time in the council-run Lawson Field Theatre.
Council workers manage the line so only 10 people go into the theatre at a time, so as to not overload the WiFi.
Johnny Pethybridge and his family. Photo / George Heard
The only shop open in Tokomaru Bay is a Four Square. It is one of several communities north of Gisborne that have now been cut from all road access for six days since Cyclone Gabrielle hit.
Nearby East Coast town of Te Puia Springs, which houses a small hospital accommodating dementia patients, has also been left without power, water and a way out since Monday.
Both communities are grateful there have been no deaths there. Most confronting for the Tokomaru Bay locals is the damage the cyclone has wrought.
“There’s a lot of devastation, like everyone’s costs… like on our block, all the fences are gone, silt’s up, logs all over our farm, but at least no one got hurt or killed,” Pethybridge says.
Tokomaru Bay resident Brad Turei at the local fire station. Photo / George Heard
“There’s all sorts of emotions just with the damage. We live 10 minutes down the road. It’ll just take a while to get over it, aye. When you see the damage it’s quite overwhelming you know, especially when you see the force of Mother Nature and all the bridges have been taken out, three or four around the area. So I don’t know where to go from here, just keep positive. The good thing is all the community’s helping out where they can, which is awesome to see.”
Brad Turei is frustrated by the lack of emergency contact to Tokomaru Bay, but proud of his community’s response.
“As everyone knows, we’re stranded at the moment. Yeah bro, we’ve got WiFi and power in some places. Suppose the first couple of days without power, things like that, were a big change,” he said.
“The weather was wicked bro, the wind and the rain and all the damage it’s done to the roads. Good to see all the contractors are out there trying to open things up. Everyone’s chipped in.”
