Raetihi pensioner Elizabeth Henare is feeling the effects of the diesel spill harder than most.
She was due to move to a retirement village in Ohakune yesterday and had earlier arranged to have her telephone cut off, but a family emergency meant she's had to postpone her move.
However, she was unable to reach the phone company before she was cut off and, to make matters worse, she has heart problems and uses a medical alarm ... which works over the phone line.
Now she and her two cats, Butch and Susie, are effectively isolated in her tiny Seddon St flat surrounded by bags and boxes full of clothes and household items until Monday at the earliest. "I'm in limbo - part of me is over there and part of me is here. I just have to keep my cellphone with me all the time."
She was angry the diesel spill from Turoa was able to happen at all.