As carwash water blasters drenched the vehicle Cyclone Gabrielle survivor Pam Yarnold was sitting in, her thoughts went back to her near-death in a caravan swept away by a wall of water, mud and silt.
The 81-year-old was among hundreds of residents of Esk Valley – on State Highway 5 on the outskirts of Napier – lucky to live through the deathly battering Cyclone Gabrielle delivered to Hawke’s Bay.
As her much-loved caravan was swept away in the hours of darkness that fell on Esk Valley, Yarnold grabbed her beloved crochet gear and hoped for the best.
Almost three months on, Yarnold spoke to the Herald of how life has changed for her in the aftermath of the cyclone – which claimed the lives of 11 people – and how the relatively normal act of driving into a carwash had triggered memories of the events of February 13 and 14.
“My friend and I went through a carwash and it was just like being in the flood again ... it was horrible,” Yarnold said.
“Before we drove in, I just didn’t think about it. But after a few minutes of the carwash, I could just feel myself shrinking down into the seat. I felt really sick.
81-year-old Pam Yarnold had horrible flashbacks to her near-death in Cyclone Gabrielle while in a carwash. Photo / Neil Reid
“And when you are in a carwash you can’t just say, ‘Right, I want out of here’.”
When Cyclone Gabrielle hit, 81-year-old Yarnold – who is an artist - was living in the Eskdale Caravan Park. The floodwaters – described by another resident as being “sea-like” and with “big waves” - swept her home off its site and washed it away to a paddock further down the valley.
She believes she owes her life to the fact the caravan was eventually stopped by a pile of large wooden apple bins and downed power cables, which also kept it afloat until she was later rescued.
The reminders of flooding and cyclone damage are visible throughout Esk Valley. Photo / Neil Reid
Yarnold said the jarring flashbacks in the carwash made her realise she would have to visit Esk Valley; an area which was previously picturesque with vineyards, crops and farmland which had been left decimated and covered in millions of metric tonnes of silt.
“I knew that I had to face it ... I couldn’t hide from it,” she said.
“After two or three weeks, we went out and I was able to rescue some of my pot plants, mainly the bulbs.
“One clump, I had given a piece of it to my granddaughter after it went through the 2018 flood. And then when we went to see if it had gone through Gabrielle, there was a little piece of this plant growing on the top of the silt as if to say, ‘Here I am again’.
“I told my daughter and she just burst out laughing, and my granddaughter said, ‘Oh my God, you just can’t kill it’.”
That visit had been a healing one, with Yarnold saying that since spending time in Esk Valley, she had been fine.
Earlier, Yarnold’s granddaughter had been able to recover about three-quarters of her possessions from the badly damaged caravan. Sadly, her art and sketches were destroyed.
Thankfully, she said insurance claims on both her car and caravan had been paid out “quite quickly”.
Yarnold said the finalising of both claims had provided a source of laughter during a tough time.
“They did the car claim first and said, ‘Could you please leave the keys with us?’,” Yarnold said.
“I said, ‘I had no idea where the keys are, the car went through the flood’. They said, ‘Okay’.
“Then the next lot got back to me about the caravan, and I said they might need a digger and a crane [to get it out] as it was right in the middle of a paddock. They said, ‘Could you leave the keys with it?’. I told them the keys were the last thing I had thought of [trying to find during the flood],” she laughed.
Dan and Ashlee Gale - with daughters Alison, six, and Peyton - hope they will be able to rebuild the Eskdale Caravan Park. Photo / Warren Buckland
Yarnold is currently living at a friend’s house in the Napier suburb of Taradale.
She has many joyful memories of life at the Eskdale Caravan Park pre-Cyclone Gabrielle.
While its owners hoped to rebuild it – if the Esk Valley is allowed to be built on again – Yarnold said sadly, she would not be returning.
“I am thinking ‘Nah’, that might be trusting my luck a bit too much. Gabrielle was so bad ... who knows, the next one might be even worse,” she said.
“I don’t think I will do the caravan thing again.”
When the caravan that Pam Yarnold was living in was swept away through Esk Valley during Cyclone Gabrielle, she picked up her crochet and hoped for the best. Photo / Neil Reid
Yarnold might have lost her beautiful view across Esk Valley, but she certainly hasn’t lost her love for crochet.
She has become the sole crochet exponent in several Hawke’s Bay knitting clubs, saying jokingly: “Everyone was asking what I was making and after I told them, they said, ‘Hold on, I read about you in the paper’.”
Rissington has been home to Gretchen Absolom for the past 54 years.
But as she looks out over the destruction Cyclone Gabrielle unleashed on the farming settlement – located about 15 kilometres northwest of Napier – the long-time resident describes the once-beautiful area as “buggered”.
The sobering sight of a house buried in silt, in the rural hamlet of Rissington, three months on from Cyclone Gabrielle. Photo / Neil Reid
Absolom is one of the few residents who has been able to remain in an undamaged Rissington property post-cyclone.
Many of the properties in the settlement near hers were either destroyed or badly damaged in the cyclone. One house on nearby Puketitri Rd was almost completely submerged in mud and silt; all that can be seen now of the house is part of the roof, the chimney and a Sky TV dish.
“It is a beautiful valley ... well, it was a truly beautiful valley,” Absolom said.
“I have been overseas a bit and lived out of New Zealand for a little bit, and people say, ‘Why do you still live there?’ And I will say, ‘I am happy here, it is beautiful and peaceful’. Well, it was.”
Given the elevated nature of Absolom’s home, it was immune from the mud and raging floodwaters deposited by a severely flooded Mangaone River.
Debris cleared off the raised surface of Soldiers Settlement Rd, near Gretchen Absolom's house. Photo / Neil Reid
But other parts of her property suffered severe damage, including a driveway exit being blocked by huge deposits of silt. Several sheds and a garden area have also been wiped out.
The sheer power of the water picked up a 40-foot container filled with “precious” family items and deposited it 800 metres away.
Rissington was cut off by the storm.
Floodwaters wiped out the iconic bridge that had stood for 94 years – having replaced earlier bridges destroyed by flooding in 1897 and 1924 – and resulted in slips which blocked other road routes.
The old Rissington bridge structure lies against the riverbank, with the new Bailey bridge in the background. Photo / Warren Buckland
Absolom was eventually airlifted out of Rissington, along with her cat, in the days following Cyclone Gabrielle’s deadly hit on Hawke’s Bay.
Almost three months on, Absolom has vivid memories of the first night Rissington endured after the flooding raged through the area on the morning of February 14. It was to be the first of the 32 days that the area was without power.
At the time, she was recovering from a shoulder injury.
“I didn’t sleep all night,” she said.
“I sat out there [in her patio area overlooking part of the valley] on a chair, had water ... it was the eerie stillness that I will never forget in my life. There was no insect, no birds ... nothing ... no vehicles ... [it was] just silent.”
That silence has now been replaced by the rumblings of bulldozers and crews using other earth-moving equipment – who Absolom says are doing a “great job” - as they face a massive clean-up job.
The huge amount of silt deposited across Rissington has led to parts of the roading network – including Soldiers Settlement Rd, which Absolom lives on - now being up to two metres higher than normal.
The Anzac carving in the Hawke's Bay hamlet of Rissington survived the destruction around it caused by Cyclone Gabrielle. Photo / Neil Reid
“I have been told ... they [clean-up crews] haven’t been able to get down to the tar seal yet,” she said.
“Even though the house is high, we were quite private here. Now, we can see all the vehicles going by - we used to only be able to see some of the roofs.”
With no power, her property’s water supply gone, the area isolated and considering her injury, Absolom decided to relocate to Taupō for several weeks.
She returned to be shocked by the devastation delivered to what was previously her slice of paradise.
One positive has been the construction of a temporary Bailey bridge which has seen residents and suppliers travel to and from Napier via Puketitri Rd.
The damage left by Cyclone Gabrielle on the hamlet of Rissington is seen immediately when you drive into the Hawke's Bay hamlet. Photo / Neil Reid
That also means the route to Napier is back to taking about 30 minutes, as opposed to a 90-minute route which included winding, shingle sections of road.
Despite the devastation of Cyclone Gabrielle, she had no intention of leaving the valley she described as previously being “truly beautiful”.
“It is not beautiful now,” Absolom said.
“I would like to see it back to it was. But that is going to take many, many moons.”
‘It is going to be a long winter’
Pātoka farmer Sally Newall says some in rural communities like hers impacted by Cyclone Gabrielle are in for a “long winter”.
Many farms in the rural community – which is located at the base of the Kaweka Range and Kaweka Forest Park – suffered extensive slip and infrastructure damage due to the rainfall delivered by the cyclone.
Some farms had kilometres of fencing destroyed, gouges carved out of hillsides and farm tracks obliterated. Almost three months on, some farmers still haven’t been able to access areas where some stock remains.
Patoka farmer Sally Newall is warning of a tough winter for Hawke's Bay's community as they battle the stresses caused by Cyclone Gabrielle. Photo / Kiwi Country Kids
Newall said there was “a lot of stress” among impacted farmers.
“But it is quite hard to get support to some people because some are putting on a bit of a brave face or they are just too busy to even look for support. They are just trying to look after their animals, fix fences and are tapped-out busy.
“Their stress is becoming really cumulative.”
Newall praised the work of groups such as Beef + Lamb, Federated Farmers, Dairy NZ and the Rural Support Trust, which were doing good work offering support.
One of the big issues was access problems; something faced by farmers, especially in Tūtira and Pūtōrino, between Napier and Wairoa.
Others were still waiting for insurance claims to be processed so they could get repairs started. The latter was also being hampered by the demands on fencers and digger operators in the region.
“We need diggers, we need fencers ... there is a real shortage of both of those. And they both cost a lot of money,” Newall said.
“We are not flood-affected, we are all slip-damaged up there. Slips have taken out access routes and damaged infrastructure, taken out fencing and a lot of grazing land.
A large mound of silt and tree debris covers a building on Soldiers Settlement Rd, Rissington. Photo / Neil Reid
“It is just going to be a long winter. We need to be aware of that and we need everyone to be supporting each other.”
Support offered at present includes all-important coping mechanisms for stress.
Just the act of driving through areas badly damaged was “wearing”, Newall said.
Newall said her family farm had not been damaged anywhere near as badly as some. Knowing they had escaped severe damage also didn’t provide stress relief.
“You feel guilty, there is a bit of survivor’s guilt. I have a lot of friends who are a lot worse off than us ... they have lost their homes, everything,” she said.
“I feel terribly guilty we can’t do more to help my best friend who has lost everything because we are busy on the farm, scrambling to keep things going up there.”
Destruction of precious property, including this modern build in Rissington, is tough to look at every day says Potaka farmer Sally Newall. Photo / Neil Reid
Newall said the communities around Pātoka and Rissington were “awesome”, and she was proud of how everyone had pulled together and tried to help each other out.
“That is one of the best things about the cyclone, just seeing how everyone is trying to help. It is even just stopping on the road and checking on your neighbours.”
She was also amazed at others’ generosity from outside the rural area, including Napier woman Neela Neela, who has delivered thousands of free home-cooked meals to cyclone-impacted areas of Hawke’s Bay, including Pātoka.
“It is not about the meals, it is more about having a reason on a Sunday afternoon to say, ‘Hey, come down to the hall ... we have all these meals to hand out, so you can have a night off cooking and have a face-to-face chat with someone’.
“People can let off a bit of steam if they have to.”
A resident of the Hawke's Bay hamlet of Puketapu displays some very tongue-in-cheek humour about Cyclone Gabrielle, which flooded the area and destroyed its bridge. Photo / Neil Reid
Three months on, and as winter nears, Newall urged the Government not to forget about the plight of those suffering.
“I think a few people relatively high up need a bit of a reality check that this is not the end of it,” she said.
“They are going to have to provide some more support, because this [the clean-up and stress] is not going anywhere.”
The house Rawinia Gray’s family has lived in for four generations is literally a shell of its former self.
The once-pristine teal-coloured house on the corner of SH5 and Hill Rd, in Esk Valley, has now been stripped bare after countless hours of hard slogging from family members, friends and unknown volunteers.
Rawinia Gray in the boat which helped save her and her family's lives the night a deadly wall of water and mud slammed Esk Valley. Photo / Paul Taylor
Gray and her loved ones were lucky to escape with their lives during Cyclone Gabrielle; some sought refuge in a boat they tied to their home’s chimney, so it wasn’t swept away, while a trio of men braved the roof and the water around the boat.
For almost three months, work has been done on the home in an attempt to clear tonnes of silt that were deposited throughout it and on the large section around it; a wall of mud that destroyed much in its way.
Cyclone Gabrielle Recovery Taskforce head Sir Brian Roche has indicated that thought had to be given whether to red-zone some of the worst-impacted areas; a decision which would mean the land couldn’t be used for residential purposes again.
For Gray, abandoning the special family land was the last thing on her mind.
The Esk Valley home which housed Rawinia Gray's family for four generations and the damage caused to it by Cyclone Gabrielle. Photo / Neil Reid
“It is pretty slow at the moment, and it is a waiting game for the council [over the land] and whether it is red-zoned or not,” she said.
“We want to be able to rebuild out there. I would love to move back home.”
Gray and some of the loved ones who lived on the property have been staying in provided social housing since the deadly cyclone.
Her aunty, Rawinia Anderson, had lived on the site up until the fateful storm; living in a modern, large caravan in a spot surrounded by gardens created for her by her late husband. She is now staying with her children in Palmerston North.
Esk Valley resident Rawinia Anderson holds aloft a large wedding picture of her and her late husband, Craig, rescued from her mud-destroyed home. Photo / Neil Reid
Five days after the cyclone, the Herald was there when a family member rescued a wedding photo of Rawinia Anderson with her late husband, Craig, from the mud around her destroyed home on wheels.
Gray said while she appreciated the temporary accommodation provided for her family, she just wanted to “go home”.
The route along SH5 to the family home is a sobering sight.
Once-lush farm, orchard and vineyard land is now buried under thick layers of mud. The crops that still remain in the ground are slowly wilting as they die.
Large mounds of silt are a reminder of the tireless work that landowners and working crews have put into trying to clear roads and the land of silt and mud. In some places, it is estimated the ground level is now more than 2m higher.
A flood-destroyed car parked along a section of SH5 running through Esk Valley. Photo / Neil Reid
And then there are the demolished homes; tree branches and household items poking out windows, massive holes in walls caused by the pressure of the sea of water.
Almost unbelievably, the remainder of one house now lies about 600m away from the section it was swept off from.
