Epic journey amid Gabrielle’s fury

AMID POST-APOCALYPTIC SCENES OF FLOODING, SLASH, AND SILT FROM CYCLONE GABRIELLE, ANXIOUS ABHAY SHARMA HAD JUST ONE THING ON HIS MIND: GETTING BACK TO HIS WIFE AND BABY AT ALL COSTS

On a normal day it would have been an easy 10-minute drive from Hastings to Napier, but this day was far from normal, and the trip turned into six desperate hours.

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Abhay lives in Napier and owns Global Auto Works Hastings. On the night Cyclone Gabrielle hit, there was a lot of wind and rain, power and communications were down, but thinking the worst was over the next morning Abhay headed to Hastings to check on his workshop. Then came a knock on his door.

It was the police ordering the house to be evacuated and with a 15-month-old baby to worry about, Abhay waded through waist-deep water and hired a 4WD to get the family to a friend’s house.

With his family safe Abhay headed down the Napier to Clive Road to Hastings to check on the workshop and track down his cousin.

“Everything looked fine, life was normal, I checked the workshop it was fine apart from one customer car”. He was heading home to Napier when he discovered the main road through Clive had been closed, phones weren’t working, and since it had been three hours, his family would have been worried. Abhay tried to walk across Clive Bridge — a 15-kilometre hike to Napier — “but there were cops everywhere and they said ‘don’t dare cross the bridge’.” From seeking other roads through to even considering flying from Palmerston North to Napier, Abhay wasn’t about to give up but when every avenue was closed. Panic set in.

“I reversed back and went through Taradale and started walking towards Napier and a cop car came by and asked if I was alright and I said no, I just wanted to get home to Napier,” he says. Luck was finally on his side. The police gave him a ride on a route open for emergency vehicles only.

Recovery Mode

“After a few days I went into recovery mode,” Abhay says as he sorted water and gas for his house. After that, Abhay turned his mind to the community and went about helping others.

In the weeks following the cyclone, MTA member Abhay and his mates — one of whom owns a restaurant — pulled together whatever food they could to feed those in need in the Hastings community.

“For me it is all about the people in the community, after what I saw and what happened out there, I had to do something to help out,” he says. With the cleanup and recovery underway the experience has left its mark — Abhay says when it rains there is the fear of being flooded again.

“It was a scary time, four days without power and communications, never heard of in New Zealand,” he says. But in the meantime, his family’s safe and the community’s bouncing back.

(Words: Gerald Rillstone)

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