Storm cleanup begins in South Taranaki
Grace Gatenby was too scared to sleep at home on Tuesday night when ex-cyclone Gita slammed into coastal Taranaki.
The Opunake mother arrived home from a trip to New Plymouth to find her son’s new trampoline blown into the side of the house and parts of her shed roof lifted off by the howling wind.
‘‘I didn’t stay at my house last night for that reason,’’ Gatenby said. ‘‘It was interesting and eventful. It’s something I wish not to go through again.’’
Gatenby wasn’t alone in her fear in the middle of the violent storm.
Visiting Nelson woman Georgia Higgins thought her horse truck would flip as high winds pummelled into it through the night.
‘‘It was pretty bad, it felt like the truck was going to roll,’’ she said.
Higgins hunkered down in her truck at the Egmont A&P Showgrounds in Ha¯wera, where she is competing in the national quarter horse show.
Fellow competitor Kimberley Anderson said she was too afraid to unhitch her horse float from her ute during the storm, in case it got blown over.
The women’s horses were not concerned however, being happily tucked away in the showground stables, which were quite sheltered, Higgins said. Winds wrenched a large section of roof off a building near the Showgrounds’ indoor arena about 7pm, and dumped it in bushes some metres away.
Fire and Emergency crews and police helped clean up the glass and debris, and a passerby arrived with a gift of fruit juice for everyone part way through the job.
Several blocks away, Joyce Nikel watched roof tiles and debris blowing past her window on Tuesday afternoon.
Her roof was one of several that lost tiles in her street.
‘‘The fire brigade came about 4.30pm and I rang my builder.’’
She was pleased to have a visit from a friend who sat with her as the storm raged.
‘‘The power was off. It was quite frightening really. To have somebody come in and stay for a while was lovely.’’
Kaponga resident Shayna Elspeth returned home early yesterday morning after a trip away to find a massive hole in the wall of her rented house.
‘‘I got home to find half my house has gone,’’ she said. ‘‘Luckily it was the spare room, but the same wall is in my bedroom so I have moved everything to another room until I can shift it.’’
Leith Mikaere spent yesterday morning chopping up firewood from the trees that fell on his Ra¯hotu property on Tuesday afternoon. Mikaere, a caretaker and cleaner at local schools, didn’t have work for the day because schools were closed, or television to watch because his power was out so he decided to start preparing his wood for the winter.
Two large trees fell on his property, and he was surprised.
‘‘I didn’t realise it was so windy here.’’
Builders, emergency crews, South Taranaki District Council staff and contractors were busy cleaning up around the district yesterday.
Council communications manager Gerard Langford said staff were checking all water plants, waste water plants and other council facilities in the district. Others were checking on residents in the council’s pensioner flats.
Many trees and street signs had been blown down around the district. Crews were working around the clock to get roads cleared and replace the bulbs in numerous streetlights that had blown.
A Dawson Falls Mountain Lodge spokesperson said the road to the lodge had been closed because of tree debris brought down in the storm but was opened later in the afternoon.
‘‘There was quite a bit of wind last night. There’s a bit of debris from the forest as well as some significant trees which have come down and blocked the road,’’ they said.
Americarna will not be stopping in Waitara today due to the water crisis.
Taranaki’s largest car festival stopped in Opunake as scheduled yesterday but organisers were forced to cancel the Waitara stop off scheduled for today after a broken pipe severely compromised the water supply in the east of the New Plymouth district.
‘‘This late change to the schedule is regretted but is necessary to avoid over-stressing the limited water resources in Waitara,’’ event director John Rae said.
‘‘The cars will drive to Waitara and cruise on from there to Inglewood.’’
It was originally believed the storm’s movement south would have saved any major disruptions to the American-themed festival.
However, power cuts from strong winds meant food trucks, cafes and water pumps were not in working order at Opunake Beach yesterday.
‘‘It’s disappointing for the fundraising people,’’ Rae said.
‘‘But we’re a resilient bunch. We’ll have a look at the beach and get a nibble when we’re back in New Plymouth.’’
Rain is expected to clear throughout today with the sun forecast to break through the clouds by tomorrow.
Americarna participant John Hilborn couldn’t care less about the weather.
‘‘You always figure out another way. There’s always a plan B,’’ he said.
Hilborn, who is from Littleton, Colorado in the United States, is travelling around the region in his 1932 Ford five-window coupe for the week.
It’s not the most comfortable ride, he said, because it’s all about the look.
‘‘It’s unrestored with the original paint – what’s left of it anyway.
‘‘It’s a survivor-type hot rod.’’ While ex-cyclone storm warnings put off some drivers from participating in yesterday’s drive to Opunake Beach and prevented fundraisers from serving up hot dogs, Hilborn continued on.
He said the laid-back culture in New Zealand coupled with the hundreds of other car enthusiasts made Americarna an event worth attending in any type of weather.
‘‘The cars brought us together but the people are what matter.
‘‘Have fun – that’s what it’s all about.’’