'We all loved her so much': Grieving daughter's tribute to cyclone victim

Friday, 17 February 2023

Marie Greene died in flooding brought on by Cyclone Gabrielle.

When Rachel Greene last spoke to her mother Marie about 8pm on Monday they talked about Cyclone Gabrielle, which was forecast to bring heavy rain and strong winds to Hawke’s Bay.

The pair agreed she would stay inside her cottage on Dartmoor Rd in Puketapu, west of Napier, unless she was forced out by flooding.

The call ended with Greene, 22, telling her mother that she loved her very much. “I love you too,” was the reply.

Less than 12 hours later, the Tutaekuri River burst its bank and sent a torrent of water towards Puketapu - and Marie Greene’s home.

* Communities across Aotearoa capture Cyclone Gabrielle's damage on social media

* Stats NZ not ruling out delay to March 7 census due to cyclone

For four days her daughter, who was stranded in Wellington, desperately sought news of her mother’s whereabouts.

But the 59-year-old’s cell phone went straight to answerphone. She wasn’t with friends, and her name didn’t appear on any lists of Puketapu residents who had flagged themselves as being safe.

Puketapu from the air from the electricians as they flew to Wairoa.

On Friday, Rachel Greene said she received the call she’d been dreading – her mother’s body had been found in the bedroom of her cottage by her landlord’s son.

“I want everyone to know what an amazing person she was and how loved she was,” she said through tears.

Greene said her mother - “a wonderful cook and baker” - worked as a checkout operator at New World Greenmeadows in Napier.

She was generous and kind, and would “light up a room”.

“She’s one of the most generous people you’d ever meet. She had the sort of personality that everyone gravitated towards. She was an all-round people person who loved being with her friends and family.”

Puketapu is one of the areas of Hawke’s Bay most severely affected by Cyclone Gabrielle.

As flood water inundated the rural community on Tuesday, residents were plucked from roofs.

Bridges have been destroyed, homes inundated with mud and silt, and cars and motorhomes strewn across paddocks.

The discovery of Greene’s body brings the death toll from the cyclone to eight, with that number almost certain to rise.

Two firefighters, a toddler, and men and women living on the East Coast are among the dead.

Correction: The location of where Marie Greene’s body was found has been amended after the supplied information about where in her cottage she died changed.