Cyclone Gabrielle struck the North Island's East Coast on 14 February, 2023, killing 11 people and destroying thousands of homes. On the second anniversary of one of the worst storms in New Zealand history, reporter Alexa Cook talks to Hawke's Bay families living in the red zone.
Usually in late summer, the Eskdale Holiday Park would be filled with tents and caravans, the noise of children playing, the smell of barbecues and sunscreen and fresh-cut grass.
But for the second year since deadly Cyclone Gabrielle hit, the campground is deserted. There are no tents, no caravans. The layers of silt that choked the park's 13 acres of paddocks is gone now, but remnants of the storm's damage remain: tide marks on trees, a toilet block head-high full of sand. There are no people. The site has been deemed too unsafe to stay in, and the council has offered voluntary buy-outs to encourage residents to move.
However, no amount of money will ever get some to leave, such as the Gale family who've lived there for over 37 years.
"We want our lives back," says campground owner Daniel Gale. "That's what we want. So the last two years have been incredibly tough."
For two years, Gale has been fighting a bitter battle to live and work on the land his family have lived on since he was a child.
"It's been life changing. Pure upheaval. Having to fight a battle that I shouldn't have to fight. Against bureaucracy that just plain doesn't care."
He's not expecting the next two years to be any easier.
"The fact that nothing changes makes me want to continue on more and more to affect that change. There's no civil defence emergency evacuation plans yet, there's no trigger points, there's no nothing.
"All there is, is a few people left in their valley after the rest of them had a voluntary buy-out, which was not voluntary at all," he said.
Red zoned resident Daniel Gale wants the right to live and work again in Esk Valley. Photo: RNZ / REECE BAKER
The Gale family declined the council's offer because they want to reopen their campground and live there permanently once more.
"If we take a voluntary buy-out that extinguishes basically all your rights on the land, you can't run a business except for agriculture. And what are we supposed to do with a 13 acre block that's misshapen and full of trees?
"Category 3 destroys all the value of everything. It destroys three generations worth of wealth in our family alone. It's not just my campground, my the lease pays for my parents for their retirement, and my kids wanted to take over," Daniel says.
Others have also opted to stay put. Mike and Sue Brown live in nearby Pakowhai which is in the same category. They were rescued off their roof in the cyclone, and their home was completely destroyed but they say the risk to life was created by the failure of authorities to evacuate them.
Mike Brown waits on his roof for a rescue. Photo: Supplied
"I personally think that the categorisation is wrong. We took from ten in the morning until five at night to be completely submerged - and had there been a warning system we would have got out," they say.
The retired couple declined the council's buyout offer, deciding to rebuild because they couldn't afford a similar quality property.
"We didn't really have the money to actually go and purchase something decent somewhere else. With what we were given for insurance and what we were given for a buy out... and at our age, you don't really want a mortgage," they say.
It wasn't an easy decision to rebuild, as they can't get any insurance for the red-zoned property, but in the end it was the best choice.
"We agonised over it - to stay, to go, what to do," Sue says.
Mike and Sue Brown's Pakowhai home after the cyclone. Photo: Supplied
Esk Valley resident still owns his land but can't live on it
Other red-zoned residents are in a different boat. Steve Wheeler demolished his home, and accepted a relocation grant from the council to move. He's now living about 20 kilometres away from Esk Valley, up on a hill.
Steve Wheeler accepts the red zoning of his land, he's moved to a nearby hilltop and says life has to move on. Photo: RNZ / REECE BAKER
And although he still owns his land in Eskdale, his right to live there has been taken off him.
"We can never live here again... so we pay the rates, we do all the pieces, it is still ours, we still have take care of it," he says.
It's been a bumpy couple of years since the cyclone, and getting to this point has been tough.
"It was very hard to accept that we were in Category 3. This was our tūrangawaewae, it was the most beautiful spot... but life goes on and we simply have to accept it and we have to move ahead. We are doing what we have to do. We are recovering and we are pushing ourselves along.
"We can't dwell in the past. We can't constantly scream at the universe," he says.
Steve Wheeler's home in Eskdale was destroyed in Cyclone Gabrielle Photo: RNZ / Alexa Cook
Key facts about Cyclone Gabrielle
- Cyclone Gabrielle killed 11 people and caused $13 billion of damage
- More than 1000 homes were declared unsafe to live in or "red-zoned"
- The red-zoned land spreads over several parts of Hawke's Bay and Auckland, such as Esk Valley, Pakowhai and Tangoio
- Local authorities classified the land as Category 3 as councils deem it as too dangerous to live on due to the flood risk
- Several large scale investigations into the cyclone revealed major failings by local authorities and Civil Defence in Hawke's Bay
- Investigators made more than 100 recommendations, 52 of which were specific to Hawke's Bay Regional Council. Of those, 46 have been progressed
- Minister for Emergency Management Mark Mitchell has promised to overhaul emergency management legislation in response to the findings.
Some people do not want to leave land that was red zoned after Cyclone Gabrielle, while others have accepted pay-outs but continue to own their red-zone land but are not able to live on it. Photo: RNZ / Alexa Cook
No changes to the red zone being considered
The Hawke's Bay Regional Council declined RNZ's request for an interview, despite being given weeks to respond.
Chief executive Nic Peet said in a statement that the decision regarding Category 3 was made based on land being in an area that presents an intolerable and unmitigable risk to life.
"Category 3 decisions will only be re-evaluated if there is new information that means that the flood hazard needs to be re-evaluated. Warning systems are not a mitigation for the flooding hazard at a location and will not lead to a category change," Peet says.
In regards to early warning systems for residents, he says the regional council is working on a new project to test river 'trigger levels' on smaller rivers and in specific communities.
"This will feed into evacuation plans organised through the relevant agencies. We are also involved in a project with the National Flood Warning Steering Group that aims to establish a national standard for warning systems. We are committed to working together to ensure the safety of our communities," Peet says.
But some residents are vowing to continue fighting with council over the categorisation of their land. Daniel Gale says the next two years will be a long hard slog which will likely include lawyers.
"It's plain and simple, we are staying - that's it," Gale says.
Thousands of homes were destroyed by the cyclone Photo: RNZ / Alexa Cook
Eskdale resident Louise Parsons says the community is more determined than ever to ensure history doesn't repeat itself.
"We're not going away... There are ways of making people accountable and the reviews haven't done it, so there will be other ways... the lawyers are circling," she says.
There's a sense of deep frustration and disappointment in the government, as the coalition campaigned hard in Hawke's Bay, promising to do a better job for cyclone victims than the previous government.
"ACT, New Zealand First and National all promising the Defence Force would change and we would actually get help from them in future disasters. We had them promising it wouldn't be business as usual in another flood," Parsons says.
But she said that hasn't happened, and people want to see the government take over from local authorities.
"Centralise it... if it's left to the councils they are decimating communities, you know, forcing people out of their their homes, their livelihoods, and what are they going to do? Where are we going to live?," she says.
The Hawke's Bay Regional Council said it had 'no comment' about calls for the government to take over its handling of the cyclone's aftermath.
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