Ruatoria family's night of terror trapped in car during Cyclone Gabrielle

Thursday, 16 February 2023

When the Makarika River broke its banks, several Māori families were in the firing line.

One of the Te Puni whānau is blind. Another is 35 weeks pregnant. Cyclone Gabrielle just about wiped them out – and they remain cut off from the world – but they’re refusing to leave their valley near Ruatoria. National Correspondent Tony Wall reports.

Millie Te Puni and her partner Anthony Gibbons were watching television in their small portable cabin on their family land near Ruatoria on Monday night. Their nine-month-old boy, Iopa, was asleep.

“All of a sudden our house started to shift,” says Te Puni. Mud and silt inundated the cabin and by the time they clambered out – baby lopa slung over dad’s shoulder, still asleep – the water was waist high.

All around them, water was flowing in raging torrents. They couldn’t reach the other nine members of their whāunau, who were in a house and cabins on slightly higher ground, so they took the only other option open to them: their ute.

* Cyclone Gabrielle: How it's playing out across the North Island

Millie Te Puni and Anthony Gibbons were in their cabin with their baby when the Cyclone hit.

* Cyclone Hale leaves long Eftpos, ATM and cellphone outages in its wake

They jumped inside and watched as the water rose higher and higher, eventually coming up to the windows.

Millie Te Puni and Anthony Gibbons survey the damage.

About 50m away, the rest of the family watched in horror from relative safety. The family patriarch, Roger Te Puni, couldn’t even do that – he’s blind. All he could do was stand in the rain and listen to the sounds of the storm and the shouts of whānau.

“The worst part of it was just the sound of the water,” Roger Te Puni says. “We couldn’t do nothing, I was standing in the rain crying my head off.

“It was painful, knowing you’re so close and [Millie’s] in a lot of danger and there’s nothing you can do.”

The family’s property is in the Makarika Valley, about 10km south of Ruatoria. They hadn’t evacuated because Cyclone Hale in January hadn’t been too bad, and they thought they could ride this one out, too.

But when the Makarika River burst its banks the entire area was deluged with fast-flowing water, mud and forestry slash.

Their cabin shifted about 5m. Cars were swept away.

As the couple sheltered in their car, they watched as a sheep floated past, baa-ing desperately. Then someone’s shed went by.

On other parts of the property, a cabin, a truck and a caravan were swept away.

Roxanne Paenga, the partner of one of the Te Puni sons, who is 35 weeks pregnant, kept calm, but says it was really heavy rain. “We changed our clothes, like, four times.”

Roger Te Puni says it’s the worst storm he can remember.

Family members trained headlights on the truck sheltering their kin. Millie Te Puni tried to signal back.

“I tried to beam my lights, so they could see we were still alive, and my lights were under water.”

They were considering whether they would have to abandon the vehicle and take their chances in the floodwaters when, finally, the water started to recede in the early hours of Tuesday morning.

By dawn, they were able to emerge and move around a bit. A family member had managed to call 111 through a satellite Internet connection, so police and civil defence knew about their plight.

But they were completely cut off – a bridge on the only road into their property was washed out. The only way to reach them was to cross a chest-high stream and then walk a kilometre through knee-high mud.

That’s what some police officers did on Wednesday, bringing supplies. This reporter followed suit in the afternoon, bringing biscuits.

Civil defence and police have been trying to convince them to leave and come into town, but they won’t have a bar of it. All 12 family members are now living in the small house, with a generator for power.

The bridge over the Makarika River near Ruatoria has been partly washed out. People are using a ladder to climb across.

Cellphones are still out. But they are used to living off grid – solar panels usually supplying their power.

“I’d rather stay here, the bad weather report’s over, nothing more is coming up, we’re safe,” says Millie Te Puni. “Freaking out gets you nowhere.”

Paenga says despite being heavily pregnant, she’s happy to stay.

Roger Te Puni, who was born here 59 years ago, explains that they moved back after Cyclone Bola, which also caused extensive damage.

He describes Gabrielle as “the worst storm I’ve come across”.

The water was “like a waterfall going horizontal”.

Another relative, Matthew Te Puni, says it felt like being under the Niagara Falls.

Roger Te Puni says they’d only just spent $10,000 repairing their driveway after a storm last year.

“Now we’ve had the road disappear on us.”

At the next house along, Richie Waru is standing in a puddle surrounded by dogs and a pig, contemplating the weeks of hard, dirty work ahead.

“Mud for miles bro,” he says, showing Stuff how his front yard is now buried in silt.

Waru watched the water rise on Monday night, and managed to leave the area before the bridge was washed away.

His animals are OK, but he’s not sure exactly where his horses are.

James Palmer, area co-ordinator for civil defence, says there are concerns for the Te Puni family because of the heavily pregnant family member.

“But they don’t want to move. We can give them advice and guidance, but we’re limited in what we can do.”

He says the cyclone caused surface flooding and threatened several homes in Ruatoria, but the worst damage was in outlying areas. Food is being ferried to family in areas cut-off by bridge wash-outs, he says.