A school classroom turned makeshift animal rescue shelter as 60 dogs spent the night on top of desks in flood-stricken Pakowhai – but kennel owner Diane O’Neill refused to leave any pet behind.
Ankle-deep in mud on Friday, the Chesterhope Rd resident sloshed over to the gate to meet Pakowhai School principal Tim Race. “So sorry mate, we had to break into the school,” she said. “There was nowhere else to go.”
Race, who was returning to the 32-pupil school to survey the damage for the first time, assured a worried O’Neill it was fine. “As long as everybody is safe.”
The previous school on a different site had flooded, around 100 years ago, which was why the current school had been built on the highest place in the area.
“We are glad of that now.”
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Pakowhai is one of the hardest hit areas in Napier, aside from Esk Valley.
Locals were jetboated out from swamped buildings and rescued from rooftops rescue teams late on Tuesday, after the banks of the Ngaruroro River burst and sent floodwaters rushing across the rural Hawke’s Bay settlement.
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Dog breeder Diane O’Neill’s animals in safe hands at Pakowhai School during Cyclone Gabrielle.
Friday was the first time any had been able to access the road to survey the damage, with SH2 between Napier and Hastings having been closed. The majority of houses down Pakowhai Rd to the Ngaruroro River are uninhabitable. Debris litters the fields, with caravans, cars, and fences overturned and thrown into orchards.
O’Neill, a breeder who runs Chesterhope Kennels, said she glanced down the road to see a river rushing towards her. She and her husband sprinted to the kennels, piling dogs three into a crate to race them by truck to the school, about 50m down the road. “The water was coming up so quick, we smashed the door open and then we just lifted the dogs up onto the desks,” O’Neill said.
Juan Zarama Perini/Stuff
Diane O’Neill sheltered in Pakowhai School with her family and all her dogs.
Once the dogs were calm she waded back to her house to save her three cats, carrying them back overhead through waist-deep waters in cages – a usually 2-minute walk that took 25.
But she couldn’t get to every animal. “The thought that will take me to my grave is the sound of all the sheep dying,” she said.
Chesterhope Station, at the end of the road, was once home to about 2000 sheep. Bodies of some of the animals were tangled in the hedges around the school today.
The lower classroom at the school had flooded and the playground and surrounds were covered in mud.
Race said at least seven families from the school had lost their homes.
“It’s pretty horrific, it’s unbelievable. It’s devastating for the school community.”
They had offers from other schools to host the students, and could run as a satellite school from Hastings if necessary, he said.
“We can rebuild as a school, we’ve got an amazing community. We’ll just find out what will be right for the children.”
Dog breeder Diane O’Neill rescued her dogs – and was herself rescued by jetboat from the hard-hit Pakowhai.
Further down Pakowhai Rd, Stuff followed resident Geoff Downer, 65, to survey his home for the first time after being evacuated on Tuesday around 5pm.
There are four houses on his property, all destroyed.
“My son was on the roof up there,” he pointed, stepping over his wrecked front gate. “And my partner and I were sitting on chairs on the top of the kitchen bench.
Juan Zarama Perini/Stuff
Geoff Downer surveys the damage around his flood-hit property following Cyclone Gabrielle.
“A car floated in the driveway with two adults and two kids in it, and they pushed their way out and on to the roof with my son.”
He watched his cat, Puss, fall off the roof and go meowing off in the turbulent water. “That was the last I saw of her.” He and his terrified partner watched the waters rise until about 5.30pm when the family of four was helicoptered from his son’s roof, and their family was rescued by jet boat.
Juan Zarama Perini/Stuff
Everything Geoff Downer makes for his garden art business is unsalvageable.
“We’ve found out that fridges float,” he said, as the door of his son’s house opened to reveal appliances strewn across the room, the fridge resting atop a bench. The hallways are thick with mud. The same in Downer’s house; couches are upside down, artwork – including everything Downer makes for his garden art business – unsalvageable.
It took 45 minutes to go from ankle deep to churning waters at ceiling height. They received an emergency text at 10.30am, but by then it was too late.
Juan Zarama Perini/Stuff
Onlookers survey floodwaters near the Awatoto Golf Course.
He lost eight sheep, four chickens, Puss, two trucks, a van, six cars, and his three-acre section was a swamp. His horse, luckily, had survived. As the waters rose he saw her struggling to free her leg from a fence but he found her this morning, five paddocks away.
His final job before going to his brothers for in Hastings for a rest was to bury Puss. Then, a stiff drink.
“I’m going to find some whiskey today.”
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