Cyclone Gabrielle - Wairoa скачать в хорошем качестве

Cyclone Gabrielle - Wairoa

Mrs McIlroy’s house in North Clyde and her 84-year-old mother’s house beside it were the first in the firing line when the river breached its bank at a bend by the showgrounds about 6am last Tuesday and made a beeline for the sea. http://www.gisborneherald.co.nz/video   / videos      / gisborneherald   Four hundred houses were inundated — half of them uninsured, their occupants typically in a lower socio-economic group, Mrs McIlroy said. Most were mana whenua (born and raised in the area, like their family before them) so wouldn’t want to leave. Diggers and work crews are now trying to unearth properties from the brown wasteland of silt that has blanketed the entire area “like a war zone”, Mrs McIlroy says. She and her mother might be able to return to houses, which were surprisingly only yellow-stickered — not fully condemned. They’re among a group sheltering at their marae,Te Poho O Hinewai, which was unaffected by the flood, and had teamed up with Wairoa District Council to become a hub for the recovery effort. Mrs McIlroy says the “silent, creeping” way in which the flood suddenly advanced is what made her question its origin. At 5.45am her husband and son went to work and all was well. It seemed Cyclone Gabrielle had passed through without any real incident. At 6am her sister luckily got up and noticed water in their yard. It was rapidly getting deeper but wasn’t a noisy, debris-laden torrent like the flood in Hawke’s Bay. “When we were getting inundated it was just water and it rose really quickly. “If you were asleep, it would have killed you ‘cos you wouldn’t have known it was there until it was in your house,” Mrs McIlroy said. She tried twice to phone 111, then realised the power was out, cell tower signal had gone and they would have to save themselves — and anyone else they could. As they drove away the river followed them. They beeped their horn and yelled for people to get out. Mrs McIlroy ran into properties, banged on windows and screamed that emergency services wouldn’t be coming. “People were asleep. I was waking people up, running into their houses and screaming wake up ’cos I knew they had old people in there.” The danger was hard for people to believe because there was no rain and it was fine outside, she said. This flood was nothing like Bola, which she remembered from her 20s. There was no rain. It was low tide — full tide wasn’t until 12.30pm that day, Mrs McIlroy said. She and her sister had been “river people” all their lives. They had checked on the river late last Monday night and it was low. “We knew the rain was coming but we thought we’ve got enough time to go check back in the morning, but by then it was too late. “I’ve always worried about the (Genesis) dam and if we have flood events. My mum was in Bola (too) and she said this was 10 times worse than Bola. “Our house then never got anything in it. “This time it was just a silent killer.” Filmed and Edited by Ben Cowper SUBSCRIBE! http://www.youtube.com/subscription_c...