‘The community is devastated’
The Pātea community was feeling shaken as a search continued yesterday for a diver from the town who had been missing in the sea since Sunday.
“Obviously the community is devastated, this is a well-known and wellliked family, it’s terrible,” South Taranaki District deputy mayor Rob Northcott said.
Northcott, also a Coastguard member, was at sea taking part in the search yesterday. “We are all getting together to try and help, it’s a tough situation for a tight-knit community, when something like this happens to one of their own, it’s extremely sad and affects the whole community a lot.”
The diver was reported missing from a vessel in the sea off Pātea about 1.30pm on Sunday.
Members of the Police National Dive Squad were in Pātea yesterday assisting with the search in sunny conditions, alongside Coastguard volunteers from Taranaki, Whanganui and Manawatū.
A request for locals to help with searching the shore line “at the next low tide and every low tide moving forward” was posted on the community’s Facebook page on Monday.
And a seven-day rahui was laid along the South Taranaki coast on Sunday, from Whitikau, Powerhouse Rd all the way down to Ōkahu, Waipipi Sub Development.
“Please no fishing, shellfish collecting, recreational activities and swimming in respect of the missing diver and his whanau,” a post on the community Facebook page said.
On Monday, Coastguard South Taranaki volunteers conducted an extensive search of the Pātea coastline and the Taranaki Rescue Helicopter Trust and the New Zealand Defence Force carried out air searches. Sea conditions that day prevented searchers from heading out on the water.
The police would like to thank those services for the time and energy they had put into the search, and also the community for the support it has offered to the missing person’s whānau, and the police, a police communications spokesperson said.
Gary Darnell, president of the South Taranaki Coastguard said they had a team of 12 people working with a large group to search for the diver from Sunday.