Damage to the village bridge. PHOTO: SIGRID CHRISTIANSEN
Debbie Aileen Hunt of Ōpārau pauses mid-sentence, a sound catching her attention.
“Another big chunk of land just fell in the river,” she says.
“Now the storm is passing, we’re sitting out on our deck watching and listening to the riverbank on the other side, just collapsing in big chunks.
“And massive trees are just barreling past.
“It’s been going on for hours. The farm [opposite] is losing a lot of land.”
It is Tuesday – St Valentine’s Day – in the tiny coastal community, 11km inland from Kāwhia, and Debbie is relaying her experiences to the King Country News.
Cyclone Gabrielle’s flooding made for a “long, scary night,” she said.
“We were woken up at 4am by our friend next door, who came over. He said he’d been keeping an eye on the river every half hour.
“He thought it was time to get ready to go. At its peak, it got about 10 feet away from our door. We were all keeping our eyes open and staying awake and looking out for whoever needed help.”
Communications were almost entirely cut. “We didn’t have power, either, and we couldn’t ring each other to make sure we’re all okay,” she said.
It was still well before dawn, and the darkness added to the fear.
“You can’t see what’s going on,” she said.
Kāwhia chief fire officer Callan Stewart arrived at Ōpārau early on Tuesday morning.
One local could still access a data connection on their cellphone, he said, and had contacted them.
“They managed to get a [Facebook] message out, a message out to someone who had cell phone coverage and then and then they rang … they managed to get 111.”
“Just after 5am … we got there. They had extensive flooding from the river. The water was going through the Ōpārau Hall and through a house opposite the hall. A house on Okupata Rd, there was also water flowing through it.”
The fire brigade notified the power company that transformers were in the flooded area and gave residents advice.
The tidal river’s peak height was at 5.30am, and it subsided through the morning.
“It’s the highest I’ve ever seen the water. In Ōpārau, talking to the residents … they have obviously had flooding through there before, but it’s the worst they’ve seen,” he said.
He added that as well as damage in the village, nearby farms had seen significant amounts of land underwater.
Debbie said for her, the key thing was that everybody had survived, although some had lost livestock including chickens.
“I really feel for the people. [Some have] feet of mud to shovel out from their properties. We’ll help where we can. But it’s pretty awful to clean up from water damage, very long and painful. The residents supported each other, she said.
“We are a tight community. We all know each other and we’re all friends as well. So, we’re all really there for each other. We are in the middle of nowhere, you kind of need that.”
“This morning, as the weather has subsided, a lot of people are coming in from the farms … into the village to see how everything’s going and what needs doing,” Debbie said.
“It’s been a a rough night [but] looking at the rest of the country, we’ve come off alright. No one died. And the trees that have fallen have not fallen on people or houses.
On Tuesday afternoon, the Kāwhia fire brigade and police returned to inspect the damage. A team from Civil Defence in Otorohanga also checked on residents’ welfare.
Ōpārau’s Hall Society has announced a cleanup working bee for today.
“If you are free [on Thursday] we would love a hand with the clean-up,” they said on social media.
