While our garden, garage and car are sodden, the inside of our of home is untouched and we move back in that evening. The adrenaline that's been keeping me on high alert also starts to dissipate. Is it safe to drink tap water? Is more rain coming? No one really knows.Īround mid-afternoon the Fire Service fixes the culvert on our road and the water slowly starts to recede. There's confusion over which roads are closed, which bridges have washed away, or are about to be, which areas have been evacuated, or need to be. We trade nuggets of official information and rumours. Every conversation starts with: Are you okay? and ends with offers of hugs, food, accommodation and help. We stop and chat with neighbours, friends and anyone who passes by. Everyone else has the same idea, it seems.įlood damage on Pakōwhai Road, Hastings Photo: Supplied / Antonio Della Barca It soon becomes clear the water is no longer rising, which is a relief, but we feel restless and agitated so we walk aimlessly around the neighbourhood surveying the damage.

We fill water bottles and try to comfort the kids in between dashing back home to check on the water level and retrieve items where we can. We have no idea if our friends and family are okay and worry about Damon's elderly father who lives by the Clive River and we cannot get hold of. No one has a radio so we listen to news updates in the car trying to find out what's happening in our area. The power goes out, then the internet, then the cell phone coverage. Morning Report calls and I do a quick interview. We head to Mike's and change out of our sodden clothes. I can barely respond, too shell shocked to register what is going on, worried we will lose our home. He'll be back later, he says, he's going to see if others need help evacuating. He tells us to head to his place where it's dry, then zooms off. A friend of ours, Mike, drives past and seeing the wild look in our eyes, stops. We quickly drive a couple of hundred metres down the road to a dry spot and stop. Once out on the street, I see the source of the water, a burst culvert a few metres away spews a massive fountain of brown water high into the air, flooding properties in the surrounding streets. We leave our other car behind as it's already soaked through. I make a lunge and grab her before she can, stuff her into her box and wade through knee deep water to the car, its wheels already partially submerged. She panics when she sees me coming with the carrier and runs to the edge as if to jump. Normally at this time of the morning she is curled up on my daughter's bed, but I find her outside on the deck meowing loudly at the torrent of water flowing past her. Damon packs the bags, the kids and the dog into the car while I search for the cat. We wake our sleeping children, and grab our go bags laid out on the kitchen table the night before. The stream has indeed burst its banks but I soon find out it is not the source of the water flooding our property. I assume the nearby Maraetotora Stream has broken its banks and is spilling into our garden and garage. We have to leave now, I tell him urgently. I run back to the bedroom and wake up my husband Damon, my voice on edge. I dash to the kitchen and open the back door to find water lapping at the top step and the whole house surrounded by water, my recycling bobbing on the lawn like plastic ducks. Muddy brown water swirls in from the street through our side gate, the force of the water holding it open. I spring out of bed and rush to the window. There's a strange trickling sound out the window. In that confusing moment between sleep and wakefulness, I feel relief the racket from Cyclone Gabrielle is finally silenced, but it only lasts a second. In the week since, a power and communications black-out brought her closer to the community she calls home. Photo: RNZ / Angus Dreaver First Person - Anusha Bradley woke on Tuesday morning to muddy brown water lapping at her back door. Without power for much of the week, many flood-hit Hawke's Bay residents drew closer to one another for support.

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