COMMUNITY WORKING TOGETHER

Hineaka Smith considers herself lucky that her Ormond Road home was only white stickered.

She has lived at the North Clyde address for more than 40 years and raised her family in the home with daughters Claudine, Parekura and Joylene, still living locally, and sons Kelvin and Wairoa artist Chantze, living away.

​Hineaka says she knows she is in trouble when the water hits the top of the drain across the road. “We were evacuated to Affco in Cyclone Bola, and the water only overflowed onto the front lawn, but Cyclone Gabrielle was different.”

Hineaka stayed with family on the south side of town the night before the flooding. “The next morning, we came to check on the house, and everything was cordoned off, and the flooding was just starting. Much later in the afternoon, when we were able to make it back, the house was surrounded with knee-high silt and water, with a few of my garden ornaments bobbing around.
“I love my gardening, and it was soul-destroying to see the mess, but there was no time to cry, and I just got to work.”

Hineaka got her grandson to take the baseboards off her house, and using an old plastic tablecloth, she began to clear the silt from underneath her home. She would crawl under, load the tablecloth with silt, pull it out, shovel it into her recycling tub, and then drag it to the front of her house for collection. “I had done quite a bit underneath my house when someone told my son what I was doing, and so he came and helped, and the silt crew finished it.

Not to be beaten, the independent great-grandmother then watched how the tradies were flushing the septic lines down Waihirere Road. “So, I came home and did
it to mine, and then three weeks later, a man turned up and said he was here to flush the septic line, and I told him I had already done it. He checked, and it was fine, so that’s good he could go and help someone else.”

Hineaka said she has had a lot of help from her kids and whānau; the standout was Hinemihi Marae. “We had no power or water, and they delivered cooked meals. We had other packages dropped off. Wairoa Recovery has provided a lot of support, and it is nice to know people are in the background.
“The community has come together and helped each other. There are a lot of people far worse off than me, and it is good to know there has been support for those who need it.”

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