Flood evacuee Charla Hawaikirangi and kahapai marae co-ordinator Tane Tomoana, at the Waipatu Marae evacuation centre in Hastings. Photo / Paul Taylor
Flood evacuee Charla Hawaikirangi and kahapai marae co-ordinator Tane Tomoana, at the Waipatu Marae evacuation centre in Hastings. Photo / Paul Taylor
Charla Hawaikirangi is hopeful she will soon be able to return to her yellow-stickered home in the flood-hit region of Waiohiki.
Hawaikirangi and her whānau have entered their third week living at an evacuation centre in nearby Hastings, based at Waipatu Marae, while their home undergoes repair.
She said her two children, her mum, and herself had received incredible support at the marae and joked it would be hard to leave when the time came.
“The people have been amazing - it has been Kahungunu manaakitanga [generosity, care and respect] here on lock,” she said.
“The aroha [love] here has been overwhelming, our hearts are always warm, there has been a lot of aroha.”
She is one of 40 people still living at the marae and adjoining Tamatea Rugby Club, where beds have been set up and all kinds of donations have poured in.
Roughly 60 others who stayed at that Civil Defence evacuation centre over the past two weeks have now returned to their homes in Waiohiki or to other accommodation.
Before being moved to the marae, Hawaikirangi waded through chest-high water with members of her family during the floods on February 14.
Flood evacuee Charla Hawaikirangi and kahapai marae co-ordinator Tane Tomoana. Photo / Paul Taylor
She said she was unsure when exactly she would be able to return to her home, which has been in her whānau for generations.
“We got the yellow sticker and can still go in and do all the work cleaning it out and getting everything out, and we have done all of that and have done all the Gib,” she said.
“Our builder will go fix it all up for us, [then we’ll] put the carpet down, and away we go - we will go home.”
Hawaikirangi said the care people were showing one another at the marae had been a special thing to come out of the disaster.
“It can take a cyclone to draw everyone together.”
Waipatu Marae kahāpai marae co-ordinator Tane Tomoana said the level of donations and number of volunteers turning up to help at the evacuation centre had been overwhelming.
“Initially we were here to be an evacuation centre and care for evacuees from the floods,” he said.
“Because we had such great networks and outreach within our own whānau and hapū, we were inundated with goods and donations and money.
Severe flooding in Waiohiki last month between Napier and Hastings. Photo / Paul Taylor
“So it grew really fast and before we knew it we had organically become a dispatch centre, and that has kept us extremely busy.
“We have received over $1 million in goods from all over New Zealand, and have redistributed that all through the community including kai [food], water, toiletries, sanitary products, nappies and baby needs, milk powder, veges and meat.”
Trucks and even helicopters have been coming and going from the centre and taking essentials to flood-hit communities, including those only accessible by 4WD or choppers.
Tomoana said it had been a privilege to be a part of and to help facilitate.
He said evacuees had been staying in both the marae and the adjoining rugby clubrooms.
“I think too we are going back to how we lived as people for hundreds of years, and there is a comfort in that as well.
“Living in an indigenous way of life where it is a collective effort to all take care of each other.”
The Hawaikirangi family are among hundreds who have seen their homes either yellow- or red-stickered across Napier and Hastings districts following Cyclone Gabrielle.
As of Friday, 83 homes and buildings had been red-stickered and 785 had been yellow-stickered across the two districts. That includes hard-hit areas from the floods such as Esk Valley, Puketapu and Waiohiki.
A red sticker means a building is severely damaged and unsafe to enter, while a yellow sticker means a building has moderate damage and part of that building may be unsafe to enter.
