Residents try to salvage storm-damaged part of State Highway 2 between Napier and Wairoa. Video / Rosie Tong / Joe Warburton
An Auckland woman is worried sick for the safety of her Hawke’s Bay-based parents after losing contact with them, and many have made desperate pleas online to know if their loved ones are safe after Cyclone Gabrielle hit the region.
Hawke’s Bay and Gisborne were completely swamped by floodwaters yesterday and are struggling with the loss of homes, roads, power, phones and the internet.
Eastern District Police have released a new online tool to assist with the search for unaccounted people.
Police are urging people to let them know if they believe someone to be at risk by filling in a Person Inquired For form.
They are also asking people to register that they are safe and alive by submitting a ‘Registering I’m Alive’ form.
Bay View Fire Station has also posted photos of a long list of people who have been rescued and where they’ve been taken to.
Emergency Management Minister Kieran McAnulty said 12 helicopters are still at work rescuing people in Hawke’s Bay and are expected to get them all today.
McAnulty said there was one building with 60 people on the top.
Jess McVicar received texts from her parents, Garth and Anne, on Monday night mentioning a slip near their home in Mohaka. They then sent photos the following morning of the flood damage and this was the last time McVicar heard from them.
Mohaka is 40 minutes away from Napier and an hour away from Taupō.
“They’re stuck on their farm, and my sister on the other side of the slip can’t reach them, they’re stranded and we can’t get hold of them.” McVicar told the Herald.
“We don’t know if they have water as their water lines may have been cut, it’s really difficult - sickening not being able to reach them.”
Garth and Anne, both in their seventies, are long-time residents of their family farm on McVicar Rd, which is 5km from the main road in Mohaka.
Garth is also the founder of Sensible Sentencing Trust, a political group that advocates for tougher penalties on offenders of serious violent and sexual crimes.
“We didn’t expect it to be this bad,” said McVicar.
“All the warnings were about Auckland, my parents were messaging me telling me to stay safe.”
McVicar and her other sister, who lives in Christchurch, have arranged for a family friend with a helicopter to check on the couple and sister.
“We’ll see if we can get a satellite phone to them so they can let us know they’re okay, then hopefully try to get ourselves there over the weekend,” she said.
“I know we’re not the only ones suffering this, many can’t contact their parents and families right now.”
According to McVicar, 10 families living in a nearby campsite called Mohaka River Farm are also trapped on the land, with no contact with the outside.
Other concerned families have taken to Facebook to locate loved ones they have not heard from.
One post reads that a 9-year-old boy and his father have not been heard of since 6am yesterday, at this time they were on a rooftop surrounded by rising water.
An Esk Valley, Hawke's Bay, resident is plucked to safety by Defence Force personnel in an NH90 helicopter. Photo / NZ Defence Force
Another post reads that a Tauranga man has not heard from his elderly parents who live in the Masonic Village in Taradale, Napier.
A woman made a post to find her aunt who has not been heard from since before the floods began.
According to the woman, her aunt, who is based in Marewa, was made to drive to work and no one has seen or heard anything from her since.
Hundreds of people have now been rescued by emergency services, including defence force, amid Cyclone Gabrielle’s war on Hawke’s Bay.
They include a group of seasonal workers stranded by floodwaters , rescued near Hastings by personnel from the New Zealand Army and New Zealand Police using four Unimog trucks on Tuesday, according to New Zealand Defence Force media release.
Defence Minister Andrew Little said NH90s had been used to rescue people off roofs “and about five dogs have also been rescued.”
Upwards 300 people had been rescued yesterday and there are currently about 9000 people displaced, 3000 of whom were in civil defence centres.
