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A cyclone-damaged house in Muriwai, West Auckland (Photo: Getty Images)
A cyclone-damaged house in Muriwai, West Auckland (Photo: Getty Images)

SocietyFebruary 14, 2023

‘Utterly pancaked’: A Muriwai resident surveys the aftermath of Cyclone Gabrielle

A cyclone-damaged house in Muriwai, West Auckland (Photo: Getty Images)
A cyclone-damaged house in Muriwai, West Auckland (Photo: Getty Images)

‘I can’t imagine that they’ll let us go back and live there’, says a stunned homeowner forced to flee twice during a night of utter chaos.

Caroline Bell-Booth is, for the moment, safe. “All our houses are shaking constantly,” she says. “You leap out of your skin every time there’s a clang or a bash because you think something’s about to fly off the houses.”

As Bell-Booth talks, Cyclone Gabrielle continues to batter Muriwai, one of the worst hit regions in a storm that’s caused devastation from Gisborne to Whangārei. “It’s irrepressible,” she says. “It’s still going on now … it’s so gnarly out here at the moment. It’s too dangerous to move … we’ve just got to get through tonight.”

Shellshocked is how Bell-Booth describes her mood after the past 24 hours. She, along with her husband, their two dogs and their cat, were forced to flee two homes overnight as they tried to escape the wrath of the cyclone’s path.

Muriwai
A letterbox is visible after a slip in Muriwai. (Photo: Getty Images)

Slips have flattened homes in the West Auckland beachside community, and there’s more slips and widespread flooding in the nearby suburb of Piha. “A hot mess” is how Bell-Booth describes the place she’s called home for the past eight years. “All the rain has just been colossal. Down the end of our road … trees have gone through people’s homes. Houses are completely destroyed. Like, utterly pancaked. It’s vicious.”

It’s not just property that’s been affected. Late last night, Muriwai’s volunteer firefighting crew attended a callout to Motutara Road when a slip occurred, leaving one firefighter missing and another in a critical condition. “They’re total heroes for what they were doing for everybody else,” says Bell-Booth, who says the volunteers are, like everyone who lives in the tight-knit community, close friends.

She’d seen them earlier in the night after texting one of them, asking for help with her own home on Domain Crescent. The TV director was hunkering down with her husband Matt Hodgson when the cyclone rolled in. They’d gotten prepared, listening to advice and packing emergency bags for them, their dogs Ted and Lottie, and their cat in case they had to evacuate.

Muriwai
Matt Hodgson assesses the damage to his home in Muriwai. (Photo: Caroline Bell-Booth)

Around 8pm, a slip came down behind their house, forcing a tree to lean on the side of their home. “I just let my mate know who’s in the fire brigade … so the boys came up immediately,” she says. “They chopped the tree down that was pressing against our window.”

Around the same time, the cliffs behind their home and many others along their street began to creak. “it was just so frightening, because you couldn’t see but you could just hear things cracking,” she says. “My husband and the volunteers were outside. They heard the crack of the slip … so my husband was like, ‘Get out!’ And so I just grabbed the bags and ran.”

They sought refuge at a friend’s empty house and were in bed by 11pm. Unable to sleep, Bell-Booth was on her phone when her friend messaged her. Again, she was told to run. “She called us and said, ‘Grab my cat, get your shit out of my house, and go take the cat and get somewhere else because we’re going to evacuate the area. It’s too dangerous.”

Muriwai
A Muriwai home destroyed by a large landslide on Moututara Road. (Photo: Getty Images)

Thanks to her friends in the community, she’d found another place to stay by midnight. “It was a pretty sleepless night, as you can imagine,” she says. They had power, thanks to a Tesla battery. “And we had water. And we had a little bit of internet, which allowed us to communicate with people. I was on comms to people the whole time. I was saying, ‘If you need anything, we’re here.'”

In the morning, she was able to return home and survey the damage. It wasn’t pretty. “There’s water everywhere,” she says. “And mud. It’s really dark mud, like, ‘the-contents-of-the-cliff-face-behind-you’ kind of mud. And there’s trees everywhere.”

She doesn’t believe she’ll get to live there again. “Our house has withstood everything, but there’s so much dirt and land that has come down around it,” she says. “I’ll be surprised [if] it’s not red-stickered … I can’t imagine that they’ll let us go back and live there even though the house itself is fine.”

Muriwai
The slip behind Caroline Bell-Booth’s home. (Photo: Supplied)

But she says any property loss they’ve suffered pales in comparison to what the family of the missing and injured firefighters are going through. “We’re staring down the barrel of losing our house. And it kind of feels like nothing,” says Bell-Booth. “Our whole community is just really deeply affected by it, because we’re such a tight-knit community.”

That, says Bell-Booth, is one of the reasons they moved to Muriwai in the first place. That community spirit has been put to the test, and it’s what’s helping them, and everyone else who calls the suburb home, get through this tragic time. “People have really stepped up,” she says. “Anyone who’s got a holiday home or rental that wasn’t filled has just said, ‘Go to our address’. Guys have been out there with the chainsaws, just clearing debris and the paths.”

It’s thanks to that community spirit that Bell-Booth has found somewhere for them to stay for the next few weeks while they get through another night of Cyclone Gabrielle, then work out if their home is salvageable. “It’s just an incredible testament to the strength of this community,” she says. “It’s really humbling.”

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Flooding in Tolaga Bay, north of Gisborne city.
Flooding at Tolaga Bay in the northern Gisborne region. (Image: Gisborne District Council)

ĀteaFebruary 14, 2023

In Gisborne’s blackout, the Māori response shone brightly

Flooding in Tolaga Bay, north of Gisborne city.
Flooding at Tolaga Bay in the northern Gisborne region. (Image: Gisborne District Council)

Gisborne has been brutally hit by Cyclone Gabrielle, but the response by both its officials and tangata whenua has been admirable. 

Tairāwhiti has been ravaged by a natural disaster once again. As well as feeling the full force of Cyclone Gabrielle, a magnitude 4.4 earthquake shook the region on Monday night. But the cyclone has done most of the damage. Speaking to RNZ, MetService’s Lisa Murray said Cyclone Gabrielle pelted Gisborne with 400mm of rain in 24 hours. The Gisborne District Council (GDC) puts that figure even higher, at 450mm. Gisborne’s average rainfall for the entire month of February is usually just 64.51mm.

The extreme rainfall, combined with high tide just before 1am, caused widespread flooding throughout the night. Riverside properties across Gisborne were particularly at risk, many being evacuated. The GDC records water levels of Gisborne’s rivers at 32 sites across the region, and last week, the average height across all rivers was below 5m. Since Gabrielle hit, the GDC has recorded river levels of 7m-10m at seven sites and 11m-14m at six sites. Unfortunately, Tairāwhiti is not out of the woods yet, with another 50-80mm of rain projected on Tuesday. 

The Gisborne region's river water levels for the past week.
The Gisborne region’s river water levels for the past week. (Graph: GDC)

As of Tuesday afternoon, February 14, much of the Gisborne and Wairoa regions were still without cellphone services, eftpos and landline coverage due to the communications cable being severed at 2.15am that morning, according to the region’s Civil Defence authorities. 

Prime minister Chris Hipkins noted that communicating with the region is currently “difficult”, so the situation there is yet to be fully assessed. Alongside service issues, the wider area is also without power, with providers Eastland Network and Transpower working to rebuild the grid. Also in short supply is water, with damage to the pipes between the dams and the treatment plant. Civil Defence warned that there was no quick water infrastructure fix, but “If we work together and everyone does their part we can get through this as a community.” Officials have urged residents to “restrict water use to emergency use only”.  

Road access into and out of Tairāwhiti has also been severed by the wild weather. SH2 northbound and southbound, as well as SH35 northbound, are closed. “We are totally cut off – all our roads are closed in and out of the region… we are really isolated,” Mayor Rehette Stoltz said to NZME. Residents are being told to stay home if it is safe to do so or evacuate to a shelter if necessary. Even essential amenities like supermarkets and gas stations are closed because critical services – like power and eftpos – are disconnected. 

Flooding on a Gisborne street.
Flooding on a Gisborne road. (Image: GDC)

Although chaos has descended upon Tairāwhiti over the last few days, the communication from the top appears to have been better than what Auckland experienced during January’s flooding. The GDC and, in particular, Tairāwhiti Civil Defence have done an admirable job. But another group that has worked alongside the council and emergency responders has been the local Māori radio stations. 

Three Māori radio stations have been a part of Tairāwhiti’s official cyclone communication strategy: Radio Ngāti Porou, Turanga FM and Uawa FM. The stations’ airwaves and social media pages have been a source of credible information within the disaster-stricken region. On the Radio Ngāti Porou Facebook page, several people thanked the station for keeping people informed. The station committed to broadcasting 24 hours a day during the cyclone with the latest information – interrupted only by conditions outside of their control, like power outages. Mainstream radio stations such as More FM and RNZ have also been a lesser part of Gisborne’s official communication strategy. However, they have not featured as prominently and promptly as the Māori stations. The mainstream stations also have considerably more resources and staff than the Māori stations, putting into perspective the Māori efforts – particularly Radio Ngāti Porou’s commitment to a 24-hour broadcast.

The height difference in one of Gisborne's rivers after a few hours of heavy rainfall.
The height difference in one of Gisborne’s rivers on the same day after heavy rainfall. (Image: GDC)

As well as the Māori radio station’s contribution to getting out official information from the GDC and Tairāwhiti Civil Defence, local marae have opened their doors to those in need. The GDC website lists 30 welfare centres across the region for those needing assistance during the cyclone – a list dominated by marae. Sixteen of the 30 welfare centres are located at marae. Unlike the GDC and Civil Defence, these 16 marae have no legal obligation to help out, but they have a tikanga duty to assist. Manaakitanga dictates that tangata whenua (the marae) must extend their resources to their manuhiri (the locals in danger), which the marae have graciously done. Tairāwhiti’s marae and Māori radio stations have shone brightly through Gisborne’s blackout.

Follow The Spinoff’s Live Updates over the coming days for more Cyclone Gabrielle coverage, including the latest from Gisborne.

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