In The Wake of Cyclone Gabrielle in Hawkes Bay
Winter Is Coming - How You Can Help And Play Your Part.
Three months to the day since the shocking floods in Gisborne and Hawkes Bay, I found myself last Monday arriving in Esk Valley. I was totally unprepared for the levels of devastation and destruction I saw with my own eyes.
Of course, I had seen earlier film footage of the disaster on Social Media. I had read sad accounts of grave destruction and suffering. And I had vowed that I would make the effort to go to Hawkes Bay myself, “as soon as I had some spare time”. I feel ashamed now that it took me three months, but also very grateful to have made that effort, which I recommend all Kiwis should make, to meet and support our Hawkes Bay brothers and sisters. In fact, if you want your children to build their compassion through understanding suffering in our own backyard, I recommend taking them to Hawkes Bay for a weekend, with gumboots and shovels, and also donations of blankets, jackets and warm socks, and even some delicious home cooking, to distribute to the locals in these coming winter months. Even if you spend only a weekend there, it will not only shock you as it did me, but it will also fill your heart with admiration for the incredible courage these locals are showing in the face of prolonged and unnecessary suffering and abandonment by the current shameful New Zealand Government.
My recall of Monday the 8th of May is still vivid, and will remain so. Leao, one of the three of us in the car, was early on the ground after the floods, and she now has a network of friends in the volunteers still grinding out long days helping there. As we entered into the Esk Valley wastelands, Leao saw some volunteer workers she knew, digging silt out from around some bravely blooming, deep red roses at the edge of a silted up apple orchard. We pulled the car over and walked to greet them. The landowner, Paul, shared some memories of that fateful day. He had woken at two in the morning to find water lapping at his bed. By the time he was in a position to leave in his car, not long after, the water levels were too high for him to drive away. In the dark, under relentless, beating rain, he somehow manoeuvred himself through the gushing river which had overtaken the orchard of trees that were laden with the finest export quality apples ready to be picked within the following week. As he traversed the newly-formed swirling river, in the dark., he had to hold onto the wires and fencing in order not to be washed away.
There is much else I could tell you of Paul’s story but he didn’t want to be on screen in a filmed interview because he is desperately waiting for the government assistance that was promised three months ago, and a declaration from the government that will enable insurance to be paid out on his now-ruined dwelling.
His fear is testament to another utterly unpalatable truth from the floods: the locals are scared to say all that they know and feel, for fear that this brutish government will not honour its many public statements ( propaganda?) about generous financial support to those who have suffered such exteme losses of homes and businesses. So right from that first encounter with Esk Valley locals, I felt the discordant note of Kiwi fear about speaking out publicly. I have felt that same palpable fear in many Kiwis who have privately talked to me of their losses and ongoing suffering from the Covid jab rollout. There’s an unspoken but widespread understanding that this Labour Government will be vindictive and either slow or stymie payments to those brave souls who speak publicly about the indifference, the lack of compassion and the total dearth of decency under this government.
Paul gently guided me to another area of houses and businesses, some of which were almost swallowed up by silted mounds, and almost all of which had had silt nearing the ceiling, silt covering every inch of kitchen, silt rotting into double mattresses in totally forsaken bedrooms, silt blocking outside windows which once looked out to manicured gardens, and in some parts, silt that by the sheer force of the water in which it was carried, had brought with it from further upstream, a heavy, heaving, elongated container which was now stranded at an awkward angle, having crushed the corner of a once-comfortable middle class home.
It was as if this area was simply stagnating, frozen in time and horror, because the incompetents and bureaucrats in Wellington have no willingness to find the ways to get the healing flow of energy moving in these decimated quarters. Yet Life still signals its own healing forces . In one barren mound of silt, we espied a cheerful clump of very early spring flowers, standing straight and tall, as if they were reminding us all that beauty and recovery can still bloom in even the most desolate of circumstances.
Over the coming weeks, we at FreeNZ will be publishing some of the poignant, moving, memorable stories from those whom we could find who were willing to speak on camera. We never pressured them, but these brave souls chose to talk to help lighten the burden of their own taxing journey through the fallout from the storms, both physical and political. They chose also to tell their story so as to help others in the Valley, and to speak up for those still too traumatised to speak for themselves. And they chose to speak so that all of us, all New Zealanders, could become aware of the deep human suffering that continues in Hawkes Bay. Remember the adage: there but for the grace of God, go you, or I, or any one of us.
As I wandered through the ruined neighbourhood, I found myself holding my head in my hands, saying “Paul, how could the government leave so many people, so many families, so many lives, so many communities - simply bereft of help?” I just could not understand. I still can’t. Even though the last three years have been one long, endless nightmare of pain for so, so many in this small and reeling country of ours.
The opulent extravagance of the coronation of Charles had just taken place, days before our arrival in Hawkes Bay, and as I wandered through the ruined houses, I felt sick at the thought of any supposed leader of our country jetting off to share in that showy, meaningless theatre, and posing for media opportunities, while vast tracts of good and decent and hardworking Kiwis are still struggling with no home, no car, little food, borrowed clothes, inclement weather, and worst of all, endlessly holding their breaths waiting for the government to show some compassion, to make decisions about the land, and to offer funding and support so they can rebuild their shattered lives. How dare Hipkins flounce out of his expensive London hotel, decorated like a showy peacock in his feathered cloak.
Are they not all the same, this disgraceful group of 120 current politicians who seem so willing to feather their own nests, while the very people who pay for their indulgent self-centredness and greed, are suffering on multiple fronts: from serious post-jab health conditions, to desperate housing situations, to unaffordable food, and now to flooding. Perhaps their arrogance is best epitomised in this shocking piece of street corner electioneering by Act’s David Seymour. You can see in this recent clip, the same lack of concern that lay at the heart of the previous Prime Minister and which now emanates from Chris Hipkins.
We will return to Hawkes Bay in the coming months. Our commitment is to help our extended Kiwi family in these decimated areas. We each need to care about their ongoing plight.
Please reach out with love, humility, and concern when you visit Hawkes Bay to help. These are good people who desperately need our ‘common unity’ - our wider community - of compassionate fellow Kiwis, to help them get back on their feet.
And please front up to election meetings and ask all politicians why their decision making is having no impact on individual people and businesses in Hawkes Bay? Remind them all that it’s election year and that their arrogance and indifference will count against them in their bid to grasp at political office one more time.
And finally, please offer, with your children, gentle nightly prayers to help alleviate the ongoing suffering of those so deeply affected in the floods. I met many extraordinary people who, with a gentle hand up from all of us, will dig-in to the resilience and courage which I saw shining out from behind their exhaustion, overwhelm, and deep disappointment in their government.
In helping them, I promise you that you help yourself. Though I have returned to Auckland (for now) and still feel the shock and sadness, I have been heartened by the stories of courage and care from people who reflect the best of what it is to be Kiwi.
It’s time to find ways to build new and vital communities that no longer depend on politicians but rather, are built from human connections and humane solutions to even the most intractable of problems. We, The People, are the solution.
From the dust and silt of this disaster, can rise the prototype of a new New Zealand. But only if we each get in, roll up our sleeves, and Help In Hawkes Bay.
To organise a visit to Hawkes Bay, or to contribute:
Contact community organiser Sarndra via Facebook, or text Sarndra on 027 872 81550.
Contact community organiser Peni Edwards via Facebook, or via the Facebook group.
The Silt Inn - Where many workers stay during their time spent volunteering. Contact J for info on how you can support on 027 9011 969.
Donate to Ranui Baptist Community Care: ASB 12-3039-0195267-04. Use the reference: ‘Napier’ to allocate your donation for the ongoing clean-up effort. Ranui Baptist Community Care
ASB
ACCOUNT NO: 12-3039-0195267-04
REF. NapierContact Auckland-based community volunteers and independent journalists Leao Tildsley aka Island Girl Views on Facebook
Zeb Jackson about organising diggers, excavators, tip trucks or bobcats for Hawkes Bay. Email: zebjacksonlive@gmail.com.
Our recent interview’s with Zeb Jackson,
And Leao Tildsley.
Bonus 2min clip highlighting the true Kiwi spirit of giving.
Footnote: As of May 14th 2023, the government has announced the allottment of “a nearly-billion dollar flood and cyclone recovery package”. However, every local we interviewed last week very clearly stated that they had not received any personal assistance from the government or the Red Cross, not a cent, up to that point. There is widespread dissatisfaction, so we ask: where is the money going from the government and the Red Cross?
We spoke to one community group who said they were receiving Red Cross community help, but assistance to individuals and families and businesses is, to our knowledge, not happening in Hawkes Bay yet. We call on the government to actually deliver funds, money, help to families and businesses.
Promises mean absolutely nothing. It’s actions on the ground that matter. New Zealand is watching, Labour.
–Liz Gunn
May, 2023
They don't want to help because I feel it's a land grab, they don't want people going back to their properties they want them to move somewhere else...it's controlling and supporting their own agenda...they don't give a rats ass about any of us full stop...Liz you are amazing, strong, courages and full of truth, thank you thank you thank you for all your professionalism as a journalist for the citizens of NZ.