Cyclone took their house, family now stuck in limbo as bills mount up

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The Cairds’ house was, for a while, an isolated island amongst a sea of logs and trees.

Nearly a month on and they’re starting to feel quite isolated themselves.

Like others who called Hawke’s Bay’s Esk Valley home, they’ve lost everything and count themselves fortunate to have survived Cyclone Gabrielle.

The mortgage and insurance is still being paid, but their house is a wreck and their property is covered in 2 metre piles of logs and trees.

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They’d like to know soon whether the place they used to call home is going to be ‘red-zoned’.

The Cairds live at the bottom of the valley, about 500m inland from the coast and about 500m northeast of the Esk River.

James Caird and his mother-in-law Geneva Pederson at the property they used to call home, near the Esk River.

Marty Sharpe/Stuff

James Caird and his mother-in-law Geneva Pederson at the property they used to call home, near the Esk River.

James Caird noticed the first signs of flooding at about 2am on the morning of February 14.

He woke up his wife Genevieve and Chloe, 10, then in the pitch dark he made his way through 1m-deep muddy floodwater to a studio flat containing his parents-in-law, Noel and Geneva Pederson.

Noel, who had suffered strokes previously, appeared to be suffering another one and was unable to move from the breakfast bar. Geneva had to hold Noel, 84, up.

James Caird and the remains of a car that belonged to his parents-in-laws.

Marty Sharpe/Stuff

James Caird and the remains of a car that belonged to his parents-in-laws.

With the water continuing to rise, rapidly, James made the difficult decision to leave Noel and Geneva and to return to save his family.

“The water was nearly chest deep by then, and it was like being in a rip,” James said.

He got back to the house shortly before the first wave of logs and trees washed over the property. Within moments the entire property was 2m deep in water that was “just filled with logs and wood as far as you could see.

The Cairds home as it looks now.

Marty Sharpe/Stuff

The Cairds home as it looks now.

“We rang 111. They said to wait for a surf lifeboat. I said ‘mate, with this much wood, a boat won’t get anywhere near us’. They pretty much told us we were on our own. Then the line went dead,” he said.

“We were thinking about getting onto the logs and climbing on the roof,” James said.

Then, possibly because a jam lower down the river became unblocked, the water and trees floating around the house began gushing towards the coast.

When daylight arrived James was able to use a boogie board to get back to Noel and Geneva and check on them.

The Caird family home before cyclone Gabrielle.

SUPPLIED

The Caird family home before cyclone Gabrielle.

“By that stage Geneva was exhausted from holding Noel up. If she hadn’t done that, he’d be gone,” James said.

At 10.30am a helicopter arrived and took Geneva, Genevieve and Chloe to safety. James stayed with Noel until a helicopter could come back to collect Noel. That occurred around 3pm.

The house, which the Cairds had owned for two years, was insured.

Debris and floodwaters surround the Cairds’ house (bottom left) after Cyclone Gabrielle hit.

John Cowpland/Stuff

Debris and floodwaters surround the Cairds’ house (bottom left) after Cyclone Gabrielle hit.

“It’s just a waiting game now,” said James.

“We haven’t heard from anyone; the council or government or insurance, about whether we’re allowed to rebuild or whatever. We want to be red-zoned, but we know some people don’t want to leave,” he said.

“We’re just in limbo the whole time. We’re paying mortgage for here and rent for the house we’re in. You want to know what you’re doing. We want action now,” Caird said.

The studio flat on the Caird property that housed Noel and Geneva Pederson. Seen here a few days after the flood.

SUPPLIED

The studio flat on the Caird property that housed Noel and Geneva Pederson. Seen here a few days after the flood.

Cyclone Response Minister Grant Robertson said the Cyclone Gabrielle Recovery Tasforce led by Sir Brian Roche was “working directly with local government, insurers and banks on these issues” [around ‘red-zoning’/‘managed retreat’].

“This has to be done carefully and thoughtfully, alongside insurance companies as people’s homes and in some cases livelihoods are at stake – announcements will be made as quickly as is possible,” he said.

“We have to take into consideration that not all homeowners in the same area are going to feel the same way, so it is a difficult process.

”Cyclone and flood-affected households and businesses should continue to talk to their insurance companies and banks in the first instance,” he said.

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