Volunteers easing heartache in the flood zone

By RENEE KIRIONA in Whakatane

The eldest Civil Defence volunteer in the eastern Bay of Plenty has no problem helping those in the area who have lost their homes to flooding.

At 81 years of age Elsie Walker runs around committee room two at the Whakatane District Council answering calls, making calls on her cellphone and noting everything down in between.

As the Civil Defence's welfare manager it is her responsibility to find and hand out food and clothing to people who have been evacuated from their homes.

And, since setting up fort at the council building on Sunday morning, she has tolled up more than 40 hours of unpaid work.

But you will hear no complaints from her about the hours and the stress of the job.

"Being at home would be pointless so while I've got the chance, I'll be helping out whereever I can," she said.

The floods are not the first natural disaster that Mrs Walker has been called on to help with.

"I was there when the (1987) earthquake happened in Edgecumbe. It was one of my jobs to help with welfare back then too.

"Both events were disastrous but our communities came together just like we are doing today."

In the room next door to Mrs Walker are the council chambers which have temporarily been transformed into the defence's headquarters.

It is a place where no one has time to talk about themselves or even to sit back for a minute to sip on a coffee.

In the seat where the Mayor usually sits is the council's chief executive officer, David Christison, calling the shots.

"Our biggest problem has been trying to get staff out of here at night. Most of them don't want to go in case they miss out on something."

About 145 staff from the council have been working for the Civil Defence and while the week has not ended, most of them have already done a week's worth of work.

But no job could be as demanding as that of Mr Christison who is responsible for declaring evacuation areas, deciding when residents should return to their homes and finding enough resources to cope.

"My wife is getting concerned about the hours I'm putting in but at the same time she understands what the situation is," he said.

From her base in Tauranga, Maureen Baker, who works for the Deaf Association of New Zealand, has also been hard at work.

"As soon as we heard about the floods our first thought was to contact those in the area who are deaf.

"But as a result of the fax lines being down we had to find other ways of seeing if they were alright."

On Monday morning Mrs Baker asked emergency services to make contact with those in the area who she, and another handful of volunteers, were unable to get to because of road closures.

"We were particularly concerned about a couple in Whakatane who had young children and whose home was almost under water.

"We ended up having to text them, and a few hours later we got a response saying they were OK and were with family."

Mrs Baker's only concern now was a man in Taneatua who she has been unable to call or travel to because of the roads being blocked by slips.

In Kawerau, Sharon Heke has given up her time to run the evacuation centre at the House of Hope.

"We've feed hundreds of people over the past few days but its seeing the emotional state they are in that really hurts.

"Sometimes we have to go beyond just dishing out the food and setting up beds. The other night, to cheer them up, I started singing which eventually got all of them joining in."

Fire stations in the district were calling in another 150 volunteers from outside of the area.