A community looks after its own
The sense of community in Nelson’s Ruby Bay astounds me.
Stuff photographer Martin de Ruyter and I arrive at the seaside settlement at 7.30am, the day after the storm hit.
Out on the street I look around as the damage becomes clear with first light.
Almost all houses are affected in one way or another by Thursday’s surging tide. Water lines on the outside of the homes mark the height of the flow.
On most houses it’s about half a metre from the ground, but on some it’s higher.
Residents have just lost all or part of their belongings, yet they are showing us, strangers, the utmost hospitality.
We are invited in for coffee by Jules and Jo Randell.
The couple and their three kids, William, 11, Maria, 9 and Lincoln, 6, have called their two-storey house home for the past five years.
After I manage to get over the pile of debris on their driveway I peek into their ground floor area.
Jules tells me they had only just finished months of renovations to create a kids’ playroom, with new carpet and new paint.
The sea has destroyed all their efforts.
Jo was home with the children when the flooding started to get worse.
From an upstairs window she could see the water coming in. When she went downstairs she realised it was gushing in through the toilet and through holes they didn’t know existed.
She got the kids in the car and drove to higher ground, then rang Jules to say he needed to come home.
A feeling of helplessness took over as they saw their belongings being ruined by salty water, with no time to save anything.
‘‘It took us by surprise, it all happened so quick. I said, we are all buggered, everyone is buggered.’’
The seawater soaked everything on the ground floor up to about half a metre. They had to rip the carpet out and because of contamination issues they have to clean and redo the entire floor.
As we talk, many neighbours and friends turn up to ask how the family of five is doing.
Jo says the community is ‘‘beautiful’’, and help is being provided without anyone asking.
Everyone is rallying together to get the streets and properties cleaned up.
Tasman District Council contractors have been doing the rounds since early Friday morning.
Jules says the help from police and firefighters is amazing.
He lent police his dingy to help evacuate people from Broadsea Ave and they worked non-stop to get people to safety.
They have been flooded before by rain and spent a lot of money putting in a drainage system.
‘‘But no drainage in the world could have coped with that amount of water.’’
After the devastating day, Jules went around the streets with a case of wine to give to neighbours – just as a pick me up.
It seems everyone is looking out for each other.
As they get ready to tackle the cleanup with a group of friends and neighbours, Jules says they feel lucky their house was slightly elevated and two storeys.
‘‘We still have power, water and plenty of wine.’’
Jo says they have now decided to organise monthly gatherings with the neighbours and community, to see how everyone is doing in the aftermath of the flooding.