After Hurricane Gabriel, “People Feel Abandoned”

In the Hawke’s Bay area, on the North Island, rivers overflowed, flooding dwellings and carrying away everything in their path. Today, while the emergency services and police are still mobilizing to find the missing and treat the injured, residents are trying to organize themselves to clean up their villages and protect themselves from marauders. They say they witness the best and worst that humanity is capable of. Tess McClure writes, In the New Zealand edition of guardian.

Nurse Julia Ebett, who lives on a hill above the village of Bukitapu, says:

About 4:30 in the morning. [le 12 février]I woke up and heard some kind of rumbling. I told my husband: It’s water! Bridges disappeared and water fills the valley! “

When day came, she saw that the water under her house completely covered the houses. Her neighbor was perched in a tree with her son, daughter and 5-year-old dog. “They had to wait for help for 5 hours while she injured her legs.”

Nosy people, we don’t want them here.

Since then, in Bukitapu, four homes have fallen victim to looting in one night. The people gathered and decided to block the road leading to the village with trucks and cement blocks. Nigel Parkinson, who volunteered to run the barrier, said:

“Everyone has had enough. It is terrible that we are doing this to protect what remains of our belongings buried in the mud.”

When he can’t sleep in his flooded house, Paul Shan patrols the village streets with pitchfork in hand. “It may not be very pretty or very lawful, but what if thieves come? I still won’t stay here with my stick.”

The local police manage to catch many of these thieves, but the residents are furious. People are exhausted and feel abandoned. The curious, the onlookers, if they don’t come to our aid, we don’t want them here right now.” explains Dr. Penny Henley.

“Times like this produce angels and scoundrels – scoundrels, but also angels: that is how I prefer to describe it,” He captures a woman responsible for welcoming residents who come to seek help in front of the village’s fire station.