Pakowhai resident Lynley Halpin wants to know if, or when, she'll ever be able to live in her house again. Photo / Warren Buckland
Pakowhai resident Lynley Halpin wants to know if, or when, she'll ever be able to live in her house again. Photo / Warren Buckland
How many agencies does it take to change a lightbulb? The Hawke’s Bay residents hardest hit by flooding say it’s no joke, they’re genuinely wondering. Hamish Bidwell reports.
It’s two months since Cyclone Gabrielle changed the face of Hawke’s Bay for the foreseeable future.
A review of the response to Auckland’s fatal January flooding has already been commissioned, worked through, and released publicly this week. In Hawke’s Bay, though, things are beginning to drag.
The only review ordered so far is a Government one, related to the slash situation in Wairoa and Gisborne.
Since February 14, residents have sought answers, often unsuccessfully, about why some of them were left in harm’s way and how they might get on with their lives.
Why weren’t they evacuated? Why was the flooding in their area so severe? Why did no one come to rescue them? Is anyone going to help them clean up? Can they rebuild where they are? Will they be insured? Are they at risk of flooding in the future?
As their question list has grown, so too have the various outfits set up to have oversight of this situation.
In no particular order there is now a Minister for Cyclone Recovery, a Lead Minister for the Hawke’s Bay Recovery, a Cyclone Recovery Taskforce, the Hawke’s Bay Recovery Agency and the Hawke’s Bay Civil Defence Emergency Group.
That’s on top of the various regional, city and district councils involved with flooding response, recovery and the distribution of several different funds.
Let’s not forget, either, the Hawke’s Bay Civil Defence Emergency Management Group Joint Committee or the Oversight Board that sits above the Hawke’s Bay Recovery Agency or the iwi and hapū groups that are contributing as well.
Pakowhai resident Lynley Halpin says, so far, none have been of much help to her.
She didn’t know the people in the jetboat who plucked her and her two teenage daughters from their Pakowhai packhouse roof on February 14.
And Halpin says many of the folk who spent 16 days gutting her home and removing silt from her property were strangers as well, just locals wanting to help.
Like many, Halpin and her family are in limbo while the powers that be decide what becomes of areas such as Pakowhai, Awatoto, Waiohiki and Esk Valley.
“I want to live here again, I want to rebuild. But I also want to feel safe and to be able to sleep at night and I want to know what the plan is before we spend megabucks on the house again,” Halpin said.
Communities like Halpin’s should rest assured the Government is moving “as quickly as we can”, Minister for Cyclone Recovery Grant Robertson said in a statement.
A “managed retreat” is one option, whereby a particular area is no longer built upon. Others include building or enhancing stopbanks, changing the structure or location of buildings or “building in a different way”.
“The Government, via the Taskforce, expects to have preliminary information to share by the end of April. We will not make any final decisions until we have consulted affected communities,” Robertson’s statement concluded.
The question of consultation is a tricky one, as always. How is the Government consulting?
Louise Parsons has organised public meetings, including one at Crab Farm Winery, where the public spoke and politicians and police listened.
But Parsons looks at the layers of bureaucracy involved in the cyclone response and recovery and wonders how individuals will be heard.
“We can’t just be asked to make submissions. We have to be part of the decision-making process,” Parsons said.
Napier MP Stuart Nash is still committed to the region, and other local MPs have been visible in the cyclone’s aftermath, but those in opposition say Nash’s sacking from Cabinet has created a bit of a vacuum inside the corridors of power.
“We’ve been really careful not to politicise anything this whole time, but now it’s all about the politics because these residents are literally in limbo waiting for decisions to be made,” National Party candidate for Tukituki Catherine Wedd said.
“They’re extremely emotional and vulnerable and their livelihoods and futures are in the balance and they’re literally relying on central government to give them some direction and make some really, really big decisions for their future.”
Having originally taken refuge in her second-storey hair salon, Lynley Halpin and her daughters had to break out and onto the roof of their packhouse during Cyclone Gabrielle. Photo / Warren Buckland
They’re also trying to keep their families intact.
Halpin tried to document as much of her February 14 ordeal as possible, including a video of the moment their three horses were swept away by floodwater.
Watching that is distressing, particularly rehearing the cries of her distraught daughters on the roof.
Miraculously, the horses found their way home three days later.
Before being marooned by floodwater, Halpin had enough time to warn four neighbours of the impending danger. One of those, Liz, dropped by with a gift on Tuesday.
“I love you,” she told Halpin. “You saved my life.”
But as Halpin noted, that is the story of Cyclone Gabrielle so far. If it weren’t for people helping people, there wouldn’t be much help at all. At least that’s how she feels.
