Hawke’s Bay pupils flooded out of classrooms for second time – ‘It’s hard on those children’

A Hawke’s Bay school has flooded for the second time in less than a year, after their new building was inundated on Wednesday.

Heavy rain caused flooding, road closures and a small number of evacuations, and three people were rescued from their cars.

Nūhaka School, north of Wairoa, had been using a chapel, on loan from the Mormon church, after their classrooms were wrecked by flooding during Cyclone Gabrielle in February.

When principal Raelene McFarlane got the call on Tuesday morning to say their new building had also been hit, she said she couldn’t believe their bad luck.

“We’ve been quite the refugee school,” she said. “When the cyclone first hit, we travelled into Wairoa every day, and we had classrooms at St Joseph’s School in Wairoa.”

They were there for nearly four months, with children in years 7 and 8 set up in a separate temporary classroom in a function room at the nearby community centre.

McFarlane said they were grateful for the hospitality, but with Wairoa 32km away from Nūhaka – a 25-minute drive – and the students and staff all split up, it wasn’t a long-term solution.

In June they moved into the Nūhaka Ward meeting house, owned by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

It was a “beautiful facility”, she said, with lots of small teaching spaces. “So we’re dotted throughout the chapel, and we’re really lucky – we all fit, and we’re all together, and we’re all in Nūhaka, which is gold.”

The Mormon chapel, shown before the flood, had been kitted out with everything the school needed.
Photo: RNZ / Kate Green

But the severe weather overnight on Tuesday had sent a wave of water through the building, leaving a muddy, soggy mess in its wake.

“It was really heartbreaking. We’ve spent the day from lunchtime sweeping mud and water and everything we could out of the classrooms.”

Teachers, parents, a couple of board members and dozens of locals showed up and got stuck into the cleanup, and newly kitted out classrooms were gutted, anything salvageable moved somewhere dry.

Flooding at the old Nūhaka School in Hawke’s Bay on Tuesday.
Photo: RNZ / Kate Green

McFarlane said she wasn’t sure whether the scale of the damage would mean a clean-up job, or a total rehome for the school.

“Realistically, we’re waiting for the assessors,” she said. “But in our heart of hearts, we want to be open on Monday. Our kids need us to open on Monday, and our whānau need it too.

“It will mean a long week and a long weekend for some of us.”

Wairoa Mayor Craig Little said more flooding was the last thing traumatised families needed.

“Those poor kids have been in so many different places,” he said. “So it’s pretty hard on those children to go through this trauma again.”

Nūhaka School classrooms in the chapel, before the flood.
Photo: RNZ / Kate Green

McFarlane said the need for mental wellbeing support was at an all-time high.

“Just looking at the faces of my team, and that’s not even looking at the faces of my kids… it’s going to take a long time for this hurt, and the energy levels to recover.”

She said the school had considered holding a pet day to cheer up the students, but realised many had lost their pets in February’s cyclone.

New classrooms were being built on the school’s original site, set for completion at the start of 2025 thanks to the Ministry of Education speeding it along.

However, some planning would need to go into making it more resilient for future storms, she said – those empty classrooms had flooded again in this most recent downpour, too.

“There is just water everywhere, and it’s quite heartbreaking to see again.”