Video: Alex Walker reveals what moved her most about Central Hawke’s Bay’s response to the Cyclone
Central Hawke’s Bay Mayor Alex Walker Alex Walker says it’s been “incredibly moving” to see the way the community has come together when “our people have been on their knees”.
While the focus of the devastation caused by Cyclone Gabrielle has often been on Napier and Wairoa, Central Hawke’s Bay also suffered widespread damage, with houses flooded, communities isolated, farmland decimated and wastewater and drinking water systems compromised.
In an interview with Hawke’s Bay App this week, Walker reflected on the response of the community to the Cyclone a month ago.
“It’s made me really, really proud to be part of this community and part of how we work together. But I think that what has probably moved me the most is the way that people have come together and supported each other and been thankful to each other for the support.”
“There's been very little finger-pointing and recrimination going on in this community. Everyone has been focused on how do we help each other and how do we come out the other side?"
Walker has no doubt that no matter the impact of the cyclone on her region, Central Hawke’s Bay can recover.
“We're already heading in a really great direction. There is positivity. There's collaboration of how people are working together. But it's when I think about the role that we have in a diverse Hawke's Bay region, there's masses of opportunities.”
“If there's areas that can no longer grow particular crops around the Heretaunga Basin, there are places to expand and diversify, both in Wairoa and here in Central Hawke's Bay, where if we think really cleverly as a region, we can actually be a really, really strong economy and society for the whole region.”
Walker, who says she received her first phone call about the Cyclone at 4.46am on the Tuesday, says she is “incredibly proud” of the way that Central Hawke's Bay District Council and the whole community has responded.
“I think that we will definitely have to look back at what we've done and think carefully about what we could have done differently. “
“There'll always be something, but what's happened is, everyone had to think on their feet and think really quick. So when those rivers were coming up and they were getting closer to coming through their stop banks in Waipawa, it was our local council staff who were standing on the stop banks with sticks with bits of tape on them measuring how fast that water was coming up. They then finally make the call about when to evacuate.”
Walker says it was this dedication that made the difference in the middle of a natural disaster.
“We'd lost all other lifelines of certainty around communication or warning systems or anything. It came down to that dedication of local people to serve their community and they responded incredibly.”
