Sepik villagers hit by Papua New Guinea’s earthquake flooding are desperate for clean water, says local volunteer Charles Marlow

“Since the flood, the main Sepik River we have been drinking from is not safe anymore, evidence of faeces is seen floating on the water,” Marlow told the PNG Post-Courier.

“When the earthquake struck on Monday, most tanks of most houses in the Sepik River area burst.

“Right now, I can say people are going hungry, food has become scarce and we no longer have access to safer water source to drink from,” Marlow said in an interview.

“I live in Pagwi area. Today I went by boat to three nearby villages and returned. I spoke to the people and did my own assessment on the situation as a volunteer.

“People are in desperate need of food and drinking water.

“They cannot harvest sago or food from the gardens, everything has been destroyed by the high tide from the main Sepik River which has covered the nearby inlands where sago and other garden produce are harvested from.

Houses collapsed
“From Pagwi, I went to Savanaut then to Yenjimangua and Naurange villages.

“In Yenjimangua seven houses collapsed and in Niaurange eight houses altogether sank into the water.

“No casualty from the earthquake was reported from those three villages but there are deaths I heard in other villages I did not visit,” he said.

East Sepik Provincial Administrator Samson Torovi said the 28 local level governments in areas affected by flood have been allocated relief funding as of yesterday.

“The LLG presidents of our 28 local level governments have resolved to use the K200,000 (about NZ$88,000) provincial support to immediately supply food stuff, canvas and relief supplies to our people,” Torovi said.

“The East Sepik Provincial Disaster Management team will draw down on its internal revenue allocation of K200,000 in this year’s budget to commence mobilisation of relief work at the provincial level.”

Phoebe Gwangilo is a PNG Post-Courier reporter. Republished with with permission.

Article by AsiaPacificReport.nz

The death toll from Cyclone Gabrielle in Aotearoa New Zealand is rising — now 9 — and many areas in Hawke’s Bay have been left as disaster zones with rescues, rather than recovery, still the focus.

Power, internet and phone service is still patchy for many people in the region making communication difficult.

Police are working to reconnect people with loved ones who have been reported missing.

Prime Minister Chris Hipkins was in Esk Valley on Friday — an area where homes were completely inundated with water.

Driving through Eskdale, the mud is thick and still water crosses the roads in places.

Debris is strewn across orchards, fields and fences. Parts of the road are washed away, there are dead animals, and cars are wedged against buildings.

A lone boat perches on the dross in a field.

Harrowing time
It was a harrowing time for Maureen Dorr who owns The Doggy Farmstay in Eskdale.

When the floodwaters hit her house, she had six dogs staying with them and three of her own.

“So John got one — a German shepherd — and put him in the laundry. We put another one in the bathroom — a rottweiler, and then we put four on the double bed, and then I held two of them above the pantry near the ceiling.

“They (the floodwaters) came right up to our neck, and then John smashed the kitchen window as the water below the windowsill was lower and let some of the water out.”

She spent 12 hours like this, because going outside was even worse.

Some of the dogs nearly drowned, but they managed to revive them.

An 82-year-old man in a ute found them on the road and asked them if they needed help.

Escaped the valley
They bundled the small dogs in a box and tied the larger dogs on the back, escaping the valley, and leaving behind a derelict home.

“There’s no way you could even get in the house for silt. The kitchen side of the house is just about gone, the wall’s just about out. The furniture’s all backed up inside it, and we had drawers coming down the hallway, leaning against the kitchen window.”

All of the dogs survived, and the six dogs staying at her kennels are with other families until they can be returned to their owners.

Dorr is staying in Bay View and said they were being well supported and her neighbours were OK — they were up to their waist in water before getting into the roof cavity and being evacuated.

She is insured, but thinking about the future is too hard right now.

Nearby, Bay View residents are banding together to check on and support those impacted in the Esk Valley.

Rowan Kyle was one of them.

‘An apocalypse basically’
“I’d call it an apocalypse basically … being local to the area, it’s just unrecognisable. There’s just cars upside down, stacked everywhere. It’s like a bomb has gone off.”

One of the new developments had been devastated, Kyle said.

“They’re filled to the brim with mud, silt. Yeah, they’ve just had it. They’re saying that there’s potential, they might just have to write them off completely.”

He did not understand why the NZ Defence Force had not been in to assist them, saying residents have been mostly left to organise, pick up the pieces, and “fudge their way through it”.

Prime Minister Hipkins was discouraging people from speculating over the death toll of Cyclone Gabrielle.

“It’s no good to anybody speculating about how many people have been injured or how many people may have died in this tragedy. We’ll certainly share that information as soon as we can.

‘Outlandish claims’
“But I’ve heard some outlandish claims out there at the moment that there is no evidence to support.”

The cyclone was the biggest natural disaster seen this century, he said.

Thirty-one thousand people in Napier, 6000 people in Hastings and 1000 people in Wairoa have been without power for four days.

Civil Defence in Hawke’s Bay said there are still thousands of people in hundreds of communities who have yet to be contacted.

Group Controller Ian Macdonald said there were too many uncontacted communities to list and they were prioritising those they suspected were worst affected by the flooding.

“There are literally tens and maybe hundreds of communities. Communities can be anything from a 1000 people in one community at the back of Rissington through to just tens of people or just a few people.”

Helicopters were delivering communication gear and emergency supplies to the worst affected communities, he said.

This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.

Cyclone Gabrielle: Thousands uncontactable, hundreds still without water or power https://t.co/PBdQjQqtmq

— RNZ News (@rnz_news) February 17, 2023

Article by AsiaPacificReport.nz

Widespread damage has hit farms across Aotearoa New Zealand’s North Island with those in parts of Gisborne and Hawke’s Bay particularly hard hit and forestry slash is once again a huge problem.

Tolaga Bay farmer Bridget Parker told how forestry slash has caused a huge amount of damage to her farm yet again as the death toll from Cyclone Gabrielle rose to six.

“It’s enormous — there is silt all over the road. It’s so thick you can’t walk through it; there are logs as far as the eye can see,” she said.

“There are so many logs all the fences are down; wherever you look it’s total carnage.”

Parker, whose farm has been destroyed by forestry slash during storms multiple times, said they can look at forecasts for rain, wind, drought and even tides but they could not predict what was going to happen when it came to the logs.

“We don’t farm logs. Their logs [the forestry companies] and their friggin’ silt needs to stay inside their friggin’ estate gates.

“It does not have the right to be spewed over the 3000ha of beautiful land that is farmed on the flats below it.”

Parker said Minister for Forestry Stuart Nash needed to visit the region within the next week to answer to farmers.

“There’s floodwaters everywhere, in our house, in our sheds. It’s far higher than last time and we are really really struggling to cope; we’re really angry.”

Hawke’s Bay area ‘smashed’
Forestry slash has also caused issues on farms in Hawke’s Bay where there was widespread flooding and slips.

Suz Bremner, who runs sheep, beef and friesian bulls along the Taihape Napier Road, said she had never seen damage like it.

“I tipped out the rain gauge this morning. It was overflowing at 170mm so we don’t know how much we’ve had.

“The power is out but from what we are hearing from people nearby is that the wider Hawke’s Bay area has just been smashed.”

Bremner said she went for a drive around her farm yesterday morning to assess the damage but roads were blocked by trees while tracks had been washed away.

“Looking at some of our neighbours who have big cliff faces on their properties the slip damage is horrendous.

“We have a road through the top end of our farm and we turned down there this morning and my husband and I could not believe our eyes. The slash that had washed down through the creeks is unreal; I’ve never seen that before.

“I think the forestry has come down and created a dam and then during the night it’s just exploded and now there’s slash everywhere,” she said.

Other farmers RNZ spoke to in Hawke’s Bay said they were hunkering down waiting for the worst of the weather to pass before getting out to assess the level of damage.

This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.

Article by AsiaPacificReport.nz

A fourth person has been found dead as a result of New Zealand’s catastrophic floods on Friday, which have now spread to other parts of the country.

Police said in a statement that Search and Rescue, who had been looking for a person swept away by floodwaters in Waikato’s Onewhero, had found a man’s body.

Formal identification is yet to take place, but police believe it is the missing man.

The body was found by a drone operator, about one km from where he went missing.

“Police have been overwhelmed by the way the community has rallied around and gone above and beyond to assist with the search,” the statement said.

“Locals have offered their time and effort, food, and support to others around them at this extremely difficult time.”

At a media conference this afternoon, Deputy Prime Minister Carmel Sepuloni said the death of four people was “horrific”.

‘Traumatic experience’
“I think it’s been a traumatic experience … That’s the most horrific part of it that we’ve lost lives.

“Clearly alongside every Aucklander and New Zealander we share in our condolences and sadness with that person’s family.”

In previous media conferences, Auckland mayor Wayne Brown and Prime Minister Chris Hipkins had also passed on their condolences to the families of those who have died.

Earlier today, police named 34-year-old Daniel Mark Miller as another victim of the floods.

Miller was found dead in a culvert on Target Road in Wairau Valley on Friday.

“Police extend their sympathies to his family and friends.”

Another person was found dead after a landslide brought down a house on Remuera’s Shore Rd.

MOTAT volunteer
RNZ understands that the man was a beloved volunteer at Museum of Transport and Technology (MOTAT), Dave Lennard.

Friends are paying tribute to him on social media.

Stuff reports that Lennard, in his 80s, was much loved at MOTAT.

“He was one of those guys who could make anything and teach himself how to use new equipment with ease,” friend Evan James told Stuff.

A fourth person was also found dead in a flooded carpark on Link Drive, Wairau Valley at 12.30am on Saturday morning.

All deaths will be referred to the coroner, police said.

This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.

Countdown to Chaos: As Aucklanders were desperately seeking safety, officials were silent https://t.co/9UJfoke7XQ

— RNZ News (@rnz_news) January 29, 2023

Article by AsiaPacificReport.nz