In the first instalment in a series of diaries about Cyclone Gabrielle’s aftermath in New Zealand, Anna Rankin writes about the shock of seeing her town go under
he flooding began in the early dawn hours, as the darkness eased into the morning sun of late summer. The night before, a raging cyclone had traversed the east coast, thrashing the land, raising the rivers and cutting power. The flood would be described as eerie, silent, creeping; or a roar, or the sound of a busted water main, depending on where you lived in relation to the river that snakes through the settlement.
The town is bisected by the Wairoa river, which, when the flood came, enveloped the north side, swamping swathes of homes and land in tonnes of contaminated water, mud and silt. The bridge was rebuilt after being destroyed in 1988 by Cyclone Bola, which caused severe flooding and damage. This event, definitive to the town’s memory, has been usurped by the scale of destruction caused byMy rental is on the south side and sits adjacent to the river.
At the shelter down the street, on the grounds of the district council, volunteers were coordinating provisional arrangements. A table had been arranged in the foyer with the names of those arriving promptly recorded. Initially, only those who had been evacuated were accepted; however, given the streams of arrivals requiring information or assistance this position was abandoned the following day.
The stories that have amassed in my notepad over these past two weeks in the aftermath of Cyclone Gabrielle could fill a book; there is nowhere large enough to contain them. And each story is a Matryoshka doll; the devastation wrought by the floods reveals a stark picture that in turn reveals another.
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