Cyclone Gabrielle: Heartbreak in Hawke’s Bay as ‘fruit bowl’ wrecked and lives, jobs, homes devastated

Lives, jobs, dreams and homes are in tatters after Cyclone Gabrielle struck the country’s fruit bowl at the worst possible time.

The damage in Hawke’s Bay was hard to fathom, apple grower Bostock’s general manager Catherine Wedd said today.

Multiple orchards and farms producing apples, watermelons, stonefruit, onions, squash and pumpkins were flooded, she said.

Nationwide, five people have died and thousands forced from homes since the cyclone arrived.

“Just driving around Twyford, Fernhill and Pakowhai, it’s very clear to see apple trees uprooted and washed away,” Wedd said.

Cyclone Gabrielle has ripped through Hawke's Bay, destroying livelihoods and costing lives. Photo / Paul Taylor

Many apple trees were ready for harvest and thousands of workers were in Hawke’s Bay and Tairāwhiti Gisborne to work on orchards.

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Wedd said some people fled their homes when the cyclone arrived. Some were plucked from rooftops by helicopter, and later returned to see farms and orchards in ruins.

Watermelons and pumpkins had been washed all over the place “and maize absolutely flattened”, she added.

Aerial photos had already provided some idea of the damage.

Aerial photo showing extensive flooding at the Pan Pac Forest Products mill at Whirinaki in Hawke's Bay. Photo / Supplied

But Wedd said it was more heartbreaking to see the devastation first-hand and hear from affected people.

“The focus is on the welfare and safety of people,” she said.

Follow live updates of Cyclone Gabrielle here.

“Driving around, everything’s gone. Just to see the power of it - crops and orchards washed away.”

Big apple trees laden with fruit, which in harvest had to be accessed with ladders, were tipped over, wreckage piled up.

“There are a lot of growers that have already had tough seasons. There’ll be quite a few that just won’t be able to survive this,” Wedd said.

“It’s so overwhelming for a lot of people at the moment and they’re trying to come to grips with it.”

Thousands of people depended on Hawke’s Bay orchards for employment, Wedd said.

Those staff included seasonal workers from the Pacific, some of whom had to swim to safety and others who were still missing.

And others were newly-arrived backpackers from other continents.

Wedd said overseas workers were crucial to local industries and many had just started returning after Covid-induced border closures.

Workers at an orchard on the banks of the Tutaekuri River in Hawke's Bay were forced onto roofs as flood waters left them stranded. Photo / Lie Tu'imoala

The economic damage could not nearly be quantified yet, she said.

Locals often took years to build horticulture businesses and invested heavily in farms and orchards.

“There is a lot of technology and innovation that has gone into the orchards in terms of the wiring and framework, and it’s just all gone.”

It was too soon to predict the impact on food prices for Kiwi shoppers, Wedd said.

But fallout from the damage to some of the world’s premier horticultural land would be significant.

“When you’ve got a region that’s been absolutely wiped out in terms of the horticulture sector, the supply is not going to be there. The quality has been compromised.”

Wedd was selected last month as the National Party candidate for the Tukituki electorate but discussed the floods in her capacity as Bostock GM and as a local familiar with the apple and pear industry.

New Zealand’s biggest apple exporter, Scales, said the impact of Cyclone Gabrielle was of huge concern to everyone at the company.

“The immediate safety of all staff, including our seasonal employees, families and the wider community are the primary focus at this time,” the company said in an NZX announcement.

Scales said the cyclone caused some flooding of Mr Apple orchards in Hawke’s Bay.

It would take a few days to assess the damage, Scales added. Mr Apple’s packhouses and coolstores were operational.

Barely two weeks ago, crops were also wiped out in some Auckland horticultural regions during the deadly Anniversary Weekend storm.

There, as in Hawke’s Bay, many crops were ready for harvest but were wrecked or washed away in floods.

Horticulture NZ this week said weather disasters, combined with concerns about labour shortages and inflation, had some growers questioning if they’d be able to stay in the industry.