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A group of Tongan orchard workers stranded for hours on rooftops as water levels rose around them have been rescued.
A video livestreamed on social media of Recognised Seasonal Employer (RSE) workers stranded on rooftops in Hawke’s Bay on Tuesday went viral and prompted a rescue mission, Auckland Tongan community leader Pakilau Manase Lua said.
“One of the guys luckily had a phone on him and the live feed went viral.
“The good thing with social media is you get a wider audience.”
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Given the “state they were in … we had to act”, he said.
Emergency Management Minister Kieran McAnulty said at 6.30pm there was an ongoing operation to rescue the group after poor visibility initially hampered a helicopter getting to the group safely.
McAnulty reported the rescue was in progress, during the Government’s evening update on Cyclone Gabrielle.
A more than 37-minute video livestreamed on Facebook shows several men on rooftops surrounded by muddy water in which outside tables, cars and household items are floating. Some were using mattresses as floatation devices.
Manase Lua said the rescue was “a bit of a process”. It started about 3.30pm after the groups of about 20 RSE workers were stranded for about six hours as the water level continued to rise to the gutter level of roofs.
The workers were flown in groups of twos and threes from the rooftops to Fernhill, where they were later rescued and taken to an evacuation centre, he said.
“It would have been a bit freaky for those fellas. They come to pick our fruit then they have to go through this.”
He said the men were in “good spirits” after the rescue and had made light of the situation during the hours stranded.
“Some of them were swimming in the water.
“They didn’t understand the gravity of the situation … until they were up there for a long time and desperate to get off.”
Supplied
RSE workers escape rising floodwater by getting on their roofs.
All the workers’ belongings would have been lost in the floods, he said.
The men left their families in Tonga to make a living doing the jobs Kiwis did not want to do, he said.
“We need to look after them. This is a good example of not enough care being taken by business owners to look after their workers.
“These guys were basically left there, and that’s not on.”
Manase Lua said he wanted to reassure the workers’ families in Tonga they were safe and Tongan communities were mobilising people to get clothes and food to them.
Tangata Pasifika reported the men worked for Mr Apple in Hastings.
STUFF
More than 200,000 are without power on Tuesday evening, Prime Minister Chris Hipkins says.
A national state of emergency was declared on Tuesday morning as Cyclone Gabrielle cut power to tens of thousands of homes, wrecked roads, and damaged homes across swathes of the North Island.
The emergency declaration applied to Hawke’s Bay, as well as Northland, Auckland, Tairāwhiti, Bay of Plenty, Waikato and Tararua.
An orange rain warning remained in place for Hawke’s Bay, especially about the ranges, until 2am on Wednesday.
Hawke’s Bay Civil Defence Controller Iain Maxwell said the impact of this cyclone was yet to be fully understood and it was going to take time to fix all the damage.
“Our focus continues to be on people and safety, and making sure those who have lost their homes have somewhere warm to be, food and water. The rest of us need to be resilient; looking after ourselves, our families and our neighbours.”
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