Sick of waiting for help, people in the isolated West Auckland community are using diggers, chainsaws and a drone to repair their roads and resume power supplies.

Homes have been destroyed by slips, residents are displaced by landslides, the power’s been out and both roads in and out have been closed for weeks. Karekare, it’s fair to say, has been hit hard by Cyclone Gabrielle. “We’re in a real fragile state,” says Toby Hyman, the community’s volunteer fire chief. Those who remain rely on supplies dropped in by helicopter, then dispersed from a hub set up in a resident’s home. They are, essentially, trapped. “There’s just a whole lot of uncertainty.”

Over the past weekend, things only got worse. As heavy rain continued to fall in the picturesque West Auckland suburb, an entire section of Lone Kauri Road broke off and fell down a cliff. It’s the most significant slip yet to affect the community. Local photographer Ted Scott carefully ventured out to get a photo of the damage. It shows residents in hi-vis gear staring across a gaping chasm where their road used to be. When he posted it to Facebook, one viewer wrote: “This breaks my heart.”

Right now, if Karekare residents want to leave their rugged West Coast community made famous by Anna Paquin and The Piano, they have to run the gauntlet. Both ways into and out of the community – Lone Kauri Road and Karekare Road – have been badly affected by slips. With the roads officially closed by Auckland Transport due to “instability”, residents use them only if they absolutely have to, and they do so at their own risk. “Our roads are trashed … any time that earth could continue to move,” says Hyman. “You could end up down the bank.”

When Gabrielle hit, Hyman and his 12-strong volunteer fire crew got to work. They toiled through the night attending emergency after emergency. Six homes came off their foundations. One couple were trapped in a house slowly sliding down a hill. It took four hours for rescuers to reach them. Damage was widespread. “We were sinking into mud up to your knees,” says Hyman.

After several days like this, they had to be forced to take a break. Hyman still hasn’t recovered: when The Spinoff speaks to him, he can’t remember how long it’s been since the cyclone hit. “We’re all pretty … burned out,” he says. “I’ve lost track of where we’re at. It’s been constant.”

At least 50 residents of the 300-strong community have been evacuated and may not come back. Those who remain have grown disillusioned with the lack of progress in fixing damage to their roads and their community. “We look at the updates on the Auckland Transport page and they just say, ‘We’re going to come and look at it one day,'” says Hyman. His neighbour called 111 recently about an issue with their young child and was told it wasn’t life threatening so they wouldn’t send a helicopter. “Government officials are too worried to drive their vehicles and to come and speak to us, but they’re expecting a worried mother with a two-and-a-half-year-old to drive? It didn’t sit very well with me.”

So, instead of waiting and making another complaint that falls on deaf ears, they’re doing something about it. Residents have been taking up tools to fix the damage themselves. They’re clearing roads of trees and debris, and moving mountains of earth out of the way. They’re draping tarpaulins across slips so further rain doesn’t make them worse. Many residents work in construction and have the gear and the skills required to carry out this kind of work. “We’re lucky,” says Hyman. “There are a lot of chainsaw enthusiasts.”

At one point, residents worked together to put a power pole back in the ground, using diggers to lift a concrete pole onto a trailer, ferry it down the road, dig a hole and lift it into position. One of Hyman’s neighbours even attempted to reattach a high-voltage power line that had snapped across a valley. “He used a fishing drone,” says Hyman. After two days of failed attempts, Vector showed up to carry out the official repairs.

Residents are doing so much work, Hyman’s reluctant to detail it all in case they get in trouble. “We’re talking … days of earthmoving, heavy machinery, cutting, shifting dirt, using the diggers to pull up the broken pieces of road so that there’s no dangerous edge for people to drive on … I don’t want to throw anyone under the bus. There could be legal issues.” (Auckland Transport did not respond to The Spinoff’s request for comment in time for publication.)

While residents say Vector has been proactive about reconnecting power supplies, they’re less enthusiastic about Auckland Transport. They’re waiting for information, for someone to tell them what the plan is. “They say they need the slips to dry out before they can assess them,” says Hyman. “They’ve done nothing to mitigate water. We’re continuing to have heavy rain. There’s no drainage reinstated. The biggest worry for everybody, including myself, right now is just how long this is going to be like this because it’s pretty impossible to commute, to do the food shop, and go to work.”

They’re picking up tools themselves because they don’t know what else to do. “We’re stuck in in a really stressful limbo,” says Hyman. “We’ve had no stabilisation of these roads. Every time it rains, they crumble more. Our locals are doing their very best to keep them open with their own gear off their own back, making no money on it.” The Spinoff spoke to one local, a mother who asked not to be named, who walks her teenage son tentatively across the damaged road several days a week so he can attend school. “We don’t have any other options, you know?” says Hyman.

Hyman is making his own evacuation plans, wondering if it’s time for him to leave the community he moved to six years ago. If he decides to bundle his family – including his five-year-old son and nine-year-old daughter – into the car, they’d have to travel along those dangerous roads that could slip further at any moment. “We were talking yesterday about whether we need to go, leave Karekare until this uncertainty passes,” he says. “If the roads do crumble, then you’re not going to be able to take your prized possessions with you in a helicopter when you’re getting evacuated.”

The danger is far from over. More rain is forecast, and potentially another cyclone looms in the coming week. But there’s another dilemma Hyman’s been wrestling with. If he leaves, who’ll be there to help lead Karekare’s response in the next emergency? “Do I take that chance,” he says, “… and then Karekare will lose their fire chief?” He doesn’t have the answer yet.

Support Karekare’s rebuild efforts through their GiveaLittle page.