Business News designer back on the job after Cyclone Gabrielle

Nearly every Kiwi will know someone who has been impacted in some way by Cyclone Gabrielle.

The category 3 severe tropical cyclone wreaked havoc and destruction in the Hawkes Bay, Te Tai Rāwhiti/Gisborne region, Coromandel, West Auckland and many other regions around the North Island.

It was only one degree of separation to someone impacted by the cyclone for the Waikato Business News as graphic designer Warren Gilbertson was one of thousands in the firing line of what the MetService has described one of the worst storms to hit Aotearoa in living history.

Able to work remotely in Taradale, Warren is back on the job after being without power for six days.

But if it wasn’t for his quick thinking on the Monday night when the cyclone hit the Waikato Business News may have not made it to the printers.

“I was just about to send the final files off to the printer. But I found a few errors and I didn’t really want to send it to the printers that night without anybody checking it. I redid the files and left them on the server up in Hamilton. I thought if the power does go, I’ll be stuffed,” he says.

His foresight meant the WBN team could do the final checks and send the files to the printers the next day.

Warren is the first to admit he got off lightly, having to evacuate with his partner and two children to safety on the Tuesday afternoon.

“Everyone in our neighbourhood was watching to see how high the creek at the end of our street got. Then were told to evacuate and went to a friend’s place. Then the cops came knocking on the door there and told us to evacuate out of there as well. By then we were told it was safe to return to our house, so our friends came with us and had to stay for four days as their area was flooded.

“We had a similar downpour a while ago and I had a stream of water running through my office which is in the shed.  I had a feeling that will happen again so I dug a trench underneath the house.”

It proved to be a prescient decision as the trench directed water away from his office.

“There was basically a small stream running under the house. If I hadn’t dug the trench my office would have been flooded.”

The same can’t be said for others in his community. Just 8-km away in Swamp Road, a friend’s house was two-metres under water at the peak of the flooding and like thousands of others in his position he’s been left with a tonne of silt to clear.

“Luckily, he got out and went straight up the hill. He was sitting on top of the hill watching it.”

And as bad as it got for Warren, his friends and neighbours, it was neighbouring community Eskdale that felt the full force of the floods.

To get to Taupo from Napier you have to go through the Esk Valley which usually takes just under two hours, now this is a nearly seven-hour drive via Palmerston North.

Stories of people fighting to escape the flood waters are many, Warren says.

“A close relative that lives in Whirinaki (on the coast) had to cut a hole through his roof with a meat cleaver as the rapidly rising flood waters gave him no option but to seek safety on top of his roof while his neighbours had to do the same and wait it out until help arrived.”

At the time of writing a total of 11 people have died due to the cyclone. Eight people in Hawke’s Bay, one in Gisborne and two volunteer firefighters in Auckland.

But, like the Christchurch earthquakes and disasters before, rising from the tragedy are the numerous stories of bravery and resilience.

Stories of people hiring private helicopters to drop supplies into cut-off communities, neighbours getting stuck in with shovels to help clear silt, food drives, fundraisers, the list goes on.

There are also the stories of people who themselves have been impacted by the cyclone trying to help people worse off.

Warren was meant to help at a working bee to clear silt at his mate’s property on Swamp Rd but that was put on hold due to more heavy rain warnings for the Hawke’s Bay.

And he worries about how long vulnerable communities will be able to keep up their spirits.

‘The community support has been incredible and it’s going to be a long journey for everyone affected to get back on their feet, to rebuild their lives.  It’s also taken a huge emotional toll on many.”