Jetboats replace cars on streets
Cars and houses creaked and swayed as they struggled against an unrelenting torrent of water that had broken free from the Rangitaiki River.
Welcome to Edgecumbe. It’s the welcome sign that was shaken in the 1987 earthquake and is now swimming in water.
It was a juxtaposition of images. Up in the sky, the sun shone brightly over the small agricultural town but below the same town was drowning.
‘‘It’s as if the town’s people just left in the middle of doing things, shopping, going to the bank, hanging out washing. Everything was just left midway,’’ said a local helping out with the evacuations.
Mother Nature’s wrath has been unrelenting.
Cars and houses creaked and swayed as they struggled against an unrelenting torrent of water that had broken free from the Rangitaiki River directly into the lives of Edgecumbe locals.
The small agricultural town, population 2000, is a place where the locals all know each other and it’s for that very reason many have turned up to the makeshift command centre at the Edgecumbe Fire Station with their boats, tractors and trucks to help.
Inside the cordon, there is an unusual sight. Instead of cars driving down the road on the asphalt surface, jetboats are jetting through the streets.
Two Kawerau cousins Brandon Crowley and Doug Looney are two of many people who dropped what they were doing after they received a call for help.
The duo used their jetboat to rescue their friends, and friends of friends, from the devastation.
A quick trip around through the already evacuated streets would see a minor miracle.
‘‘We did checks on a few houses, and one area in particular we had been told had been cleared, but we just thought we would survey it,’’ Crowley said.
‘‘As we were about to head out we saw a guy latched on to his fence, just outside of his door.
‘‘He had been on night shift and he was asleep and he woke up to the water around his bed, he just happened to step out into the flood waters just as we were driving past. We just went straight to him.
‘‘That was the one out of the day that really sticks out.’’
Crowley and Looney are recreational jetboaters and got a phone call from their friend, a local Kiwijet operator, at 9.30am on Wednesday, asking for help.
‘‘He told us that the stopbank had breached directly into the Edgecumbe township,’’ Crowley said. ‘‘We liaised with police and fire and they gave us addresses to check. There were three other boats when we arrived so we were able to get a lot of people to safety.
‘‘Everyone got out.’’ Crowley said they were just doing what any good neighbours would.
‘‘We’ll be back again tomorrow to help clear the debris, and see if anyone needs a hand.’’
The Rangitaiki River rose to unprecedented levels due to a ‘‘one-in-500-year event’’ in the wake of severe rainfall - breaching and then gushing through a 50-metre section of the town’s protective wall.
Residents who have been evacuated can expect to be out of their homes for the next 72 hours, according to the Whakatane District Council.
Prime Minister Bill English and Anne Tolley visited affected areas in Whakatane and the Bay of Plenty yesterday, a government spokesperson said.
Police are conducting patrols overnight and have established checkpoints to ensure people remain away from evacuation areas. The Bay of Plenty Regional council said staff would continue to inspect the river and there were a number of risk areas on the Rangitaiki River.
The team inspecting the river had put rock armouring and tow loading in several at-risk areas.