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February 22, 2023
Tough times in Gisborne as silt slows recovery
Waatea Team
Posted On February 22, 2023
Download AudioGisborne deputy mayor Josh Wharehinga says people of the region are proving superbly resilient in the face of Cyclone Gabrielle, but a review is needed of the resiliency as a region.
Phone and internet failures means people lost communications for almost a week.
Many homes were left unliveable by floods and slips, and silt has blocked pipelines and coated pastures.
Harsh restrictions have had to be applied to conserve water supplied.
“Yeah, its rough, it’s rough man but our spirits are high. Ah, once we got connectivity people were asking me how’s everything? And I’m like, everything’s broken, but you know, the one thing that’s not broken is our people. Our spirit’s not broken. Someone actually asked me, ‘oh can you give me an accurate number of how many people are out there helping each other?’ And I was like ‘there’s about 50 thousand people in our region….50 thousand people are helping each other right now,” Mr Wharehinga says.
He says after two major weather event in two months, the region desperately needs government support.
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