Meihana Sargent says the rain is making him anxious. Photo: RNZ / Robin Martin
Hawke's Bay residents are struggling with the mental impact of relentless rains and flooding.
It has rained on all but three days since Cyclone Gabrielle cut a swath through the region and heavy rain overnight on Tuesday caused more flooding in Wairoa in northern Hawke's Bay.
One woman was forced to flee her rural Wairoa home after a heavy downpour caused a stream to flood near her home on Maromauku Road.
Her neighbour, Fenton Wilson, said the woman called him about rapidly rising water about 6.30am.
He and his wife took her to shelter at their place.
"I got out to my truck and holy heck we could see what was happening, so we went down and I managed to shift the tractor and then it just kept rising, it came up under the house. It didn't actually get into the house but it got into all the sheds.
"She's okay, but you know, it just kept coming up. It was just incredible I've never seen anything like it."
Wilson said the water had receded, but with already sodden hills any rain was dangerous.
It had been a traumatic experience after the last fortnight, he said.
Wairoa Deputy Mayor Denise Eaglesome-Karekare said the rain today was worse than during Cyclone Gabrielle and two people were evacuated from Freyberg Street after stopbanks failed.
"We were starting to see the light, we were starting to clear the silt and pick up all the rubbish and now people who have been doing all that work in their homes it's now mud again and it's probably a lot harder to shift because it's not solid it's running."
Wairoa needed more support from the government to reconnect roads and put displaced whānau back in their homes, Eaglesome-Karekare said.
Wayne Melling and Vicky Wire at their flooded Awatoto property, south of Napier. Photo: RNZ / Robin Martin
Meanwhile, in Awatoto - south of Napier - Wayne Melling and Vicky Wire were wading into their property.
More rain was the last thing they needed.
"Well, like I woke up I think it was 3am and you could hear it raining pretty hard, so it was a little bit worrying," Melling said.
"I was sort of like we're going to come back and are we even going to be able to get into our property so we can carry on [with the clean up."
Wire also found it dispiriting.
"I'm still pretty gutted, you know, all our life is gone, it's sitting in rubbish piles. Every time the rain comes down it's like oh my gosh are we going to be able to carry on.
"We don't know if this water's going to subside, we don't know what they're doing with the drains, the rivers, you know, it's a big thing it's a really big thing."
They were getting through things as a unit and have had their good days and their bad, she said.
Melling was open to some outside help.
"One of the guys out at Bayview was organising mental health support and they said they were going to go from ... I think they said they were going to spend a week there and then they were going to go over to Puketapu as well, so hopefully they'll not forget about us hopefully."
Meihana Sargent was surveying the damage at his home while up the road pumps could be heard clearing water from nearby warehouses.
His ruined kitchen and wall linings were piled up in the mud with his furniture.
He admitted hearing the rain on the roof of his temporary lodgings last night was unsettling.
"You know it has caused a lot of anxiety and I'm sure that's not just for me but for everybody who's been affected in some way by what's gone on here.
"We can't change how nature works but yeah it does have an affect and not a positive affect."
The future was a bit daunting.
"I guess that's where the anxiety comes in because you don't know what tomorrow's going to look like whether we've got all this furniture out of here and all this rubbish and what if it all just keeps going.
"We can't do much with the way things are and we can't change [how] the elements work, we're just trying to work around it."
Sargent said he had not sought mental health support.
"For me personally, I haven't had reason I guess if you want to call it that to reach out for those kinds of services, but I'm sure there are people out there who are in a lot worse position than I am - and I'm not saying my situation is not bad - but there are people worse off than me who've never dealt with trauma of any type before this."
Meanwhile, MetService was warning another 40 millimetres of rain could fall on the region on Tuesday - on top of the 342mm that had fallen since the cyclone.
