Cyclone Gabrielle: Muriwai resident who escaped landslide says the coastal village whānau ‘will never be the same again’

Muriwai resident Juliet Rosie and her family are currently being housed at an emergency shelter, but she says they consider themselves lucky.

New aerial images captured this morning showed the devastation and destruction left behind by landslides in Muriwai, where a volunteer firefighter remains missing at the site.

Fire and Emergency chief executive Kerry Gregory said a body had been found in the area where rescuers were searching.

“We have not yet identified who this is and will be working with Police to retrieve and identify the body,” Gregory said in a statement.

Cyclone Gabrielle has caused devastation in Muriwai. Photo / George Heard

Rosie, a physiotherapist and mum to a 9-year-old, said they got mobile phone alerts about 1.20am on Monday.

“We were phoned by police, contacted by police... they tried really hard to reach everyone,” she said.

“We were then asked to go to the Muriwai Surf Club, which was filled with local people.”

There, they were told there had been a big slip in Motutara Rd, that someone was injured and a local firefighter had been buried in the slip.

A huge chunk of land had come down on to the road below bringing with it a house and uprooting trees.

Houses have been destroyed by the landslip in Muriwai. Photo / George Heard

The missing firefighter has been named as local vet, Dave van Zwanenberg, a father of two young children.

Van Zwanenberg, a partner in the Vets North practice, was part of the volunteer fire crew which was investigating the house when the landslide struck just after 10pm.

The other firefighter was pulled badly injured from the debris and taken to hospital in a critical condition.

He was named as Craig Stevens, who remained in a critical but stable condition in hospital.

According to Stevens’ LinkedIn profile, he has been a volunteer firefighter for the Muriwai brigade since 2018.

“We knew these men, so it was just heart-wrenching. We are a small community here, it’s a village, we’re a whānau,” Rosie said.

They were then moved on by unimog first to the Waimaku War Memorial Hall, and then by van to the Trusts Stadium where they arrived at 4.30am yesterday.

“We consider ourselves lucky. Our house may have some water, but some of our neighbours have lost their houses and some of our whānau have lost their lives,” Rosie said.

“Our village, our whānau, will never be the same again.”

Aerial images showed the house that came down in the landslide totally destroyed, with only parts of the roof and satellite dish still attached identifying it as what was once a building.

The walls have been almost disintegrated with the debris looking more like matchsticks from above.