After Cyclone Gabrielle: ‘People Were Our Priority’

As Cyclone Gabrielle hammered eastern parts of New Zealand on the morning of February 14, Jane Lysaght stood in the driveway of her Meanee home, watching an extraordinary sight.

A growing trickle of muddy water, with apples bobbing on the surface, was coming down the road.

It had been raining heavily all night, but even after receiving a photo from her sister showing flood damage to her home, Jane had thought she’d be OK.

At that point there was little more than a bit of surface flooding around her house.

A little earlier, her husband had gone to check on the nearby Brookfields Bridge, and had watched as it collapsed under the weight of debris carried by the swollen Tutaekuri River.

Soon afterwards the Tutaekuri burst its banks, sending a torrent of water down into the fertile apple orchards along the river - towards Jane’s home.

After receiving an emergency alert on her phone, she rushed back into the house and told her family, “I think we’ve got to get out of here”.

They frantically moved items onto shelves or anywhere elevated, unsure of how much time they had to save what they could, as the water continued to rise outside at an alarming rate.

“It happened really quickly,” Jane said. “It was kind of surreal.”

Within just ten minutes, the water was lapping into her driveway, and Jane drove out through the rising waters, stopping only to check in with her elderly neighbour, who was unaware of the danger.

Jane was closely followed by her husband and son, who were able to use a tractor to help several others out of the water.

As the day wore on, they had no choice but to head for Jane’s daughter’s home – where they’ve been living ever since.

A REGION CUT OFF

On a normal Tuesday, Jane would have been at work at the ANZ Taradale branch, but the bank had made the call to close branches across the region ahead of the impending storm.

As Jane and her family fled from the flooding, ANZ New Zealand Regional Manager for Personal Banking Edwina Simcox was facing a crisis of her own.

By noon, with stop banks breached, power stations flooded and bridges washed away, communications across the region were down.

Edwina found herself unable to contact many of her ANZ team members, and was becoming increasingly worried about their safety.

There was no response from anyone at the Gisborne branch through any channel – phone, text, email, emergency contacts - even WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger.

By the evening, an emergency response team had been assembled by ANZ and was working to re-establish contact with affected staff members and branches.

“From the start, our people were our priority,” Edwina said.

It wasn’t until 11.30pm on Thursday night, more than two days after the storm hit, that Edwina received a call she’d been hoping for.

The surprisingly-upbeat voice of Gisborne Branch Manager Amanda Stevens crackled through on the other end.

“She had heard from someone that the cell towers were back on, and driven around to try to find a bar of reception,” Edwina said.

“Just the relief in her voice - that she'd gotten through - hearing her for the first time, I thought 'what a relief’ … it would be fair to say I was fearing the worst.

“Bless her, with the staff addresses she knew off the top of her head, she had driven around to check they were safe, and she was really keen to get the addresses of everyone else – and our amazing ANZ team got those, and she and couple of others went door to door making sure all our people were OK.”

THE AFTERMATH

With all ANZ staff in the region now accounted for, Edwina’s concerns turned to their long-term needs.

“It was becoming really clear that, because the road network was devastated, there was limited access to basic food and water, with fuel also being a big problem,” Edwina said.

“We needed to work out how we could we get essential supplies to our people.”

A helicopter flight was arranged on Friday for the stricken Gisborne branch, loaded with essential goods, satellite communications and technicians to get systems back online.

As well as the chopper, supplies were also purchased by ANZ staff in Manawatu to be driven to Hawke’s Bay.

"We had an amazing team of people who helped us put together a list of what we might need in a disaster area,” Edwina said.

“That was passed on to our personal and business teams in Manawatu, who did the shopping.”

The supply run got as far as Waipukurau before being stopped due to road conditions. Luckily, Edwina’s husband had access to a large truck, and was able to get to Waipukurau from Hastings, bringing the supplies the rest of the way.

"Some staff were saying that they didn't know how they would get nappies for their children, because there were none in the supermarket - and we were able to help provide those,” Edwina said.

"The staff here were blown away by the support they had from ANZ - our peers in other regions, doing that shopping, bringing it in, and the other carloads that have come in after that.

"We're super lucky to be part of a company in which our people are the most important thing.”

IN THE COMMUNITY

Across the affected regions, there were major concerns around cash handling, both for the bank, and for affected businesses and customers.

Without access to EFTPOS services, many businesses were only accepting cash, which they were unable to safely deposit in the bank, creating a huge amount of anxiety.

ANZ organized for a team of independent security guards to be flown in, to ease that sense of insecurity.

“We mobilised our security teams to get on the ground, and we also had technicians that came in and got to work to get the branches live,” Edwina said.

“We got Starlink installed in Gisborne, and 4G in Napier and Gisborne.”

The Hastings ANZ branch, which is New Zealand’s busiest, was out of action for two days - but it was able to open early on Thursday, the first bank in Hawke’s Bay to do so following Gabrielle.

As the week progressed, the branch was also opened up to staff and families as a drop-in centre – somewhere with electricity and communications, a hot shower, and in many cases, a shoulder to cry on.

The days after the Hastings branch opened were a confronting experience for ANZ staff working there.

Lines of customers stretched out the door, filled with people from all walks of life looking for help – mud-covered RSE workers with nothing left except the clothes they were wearing, farmers whose fields were still underwater facing the complete loss of their crops, and people with no home to go back to.

“The resilience of our team here is unbelievable,” Edwina said. “That’s really been the silver lining - seeing everyone come together to help each other, help our customers and help the community.

"Everybody was going through their own personal situation as well - no one was unaffected, and yet it’s been so humbling to see our teams reaching out to those customers and those families, trying to do whatever they can.

“On top of that, we do have staff who have lost homes or had significant damage to their properties – like Jane.”

RETURNING TO DEVASTATION

In the days following Gabrielle, as the waters receded and the sun came out again, Jane and her family returned to a distressing sight at their home in Meanee.

The high-water mark of the flood could still be seen on the sliding doors, with treasured family possessions strewn about and covered in silt.

Outside, a thick layer of silt covered the ground, with apples from this year’s harvest fermenting in the hot Hawke’s Bay sun, producing a potent smell.

Helicopters worked frantically above the nearby orchards, buzzing back and forth to deliver nutrient sprays to trees in the hope of saving them.

Jane’s trees – apple seedlings being grown on the land she leases to a local business – sat suffocating in the mud.

Most of these seedlings have since died, and the family has purchased equipment to mix the silt layer into the top soil to help restore it.

“We haven’t quite lost our business – but it’s taken a huge hit,” Jane said.

“It’s just overwhelming, it’s a horrible situation to be in – we’re older and coming up to retirement age, but there are even older people than us in similar situations.”

All their machinery needs cleaning, inspecting, and most likely an overhaul, which will take months.

Anything absorbent has had to go, including the gib on the walls, all the clothes and bedding, books and papers, and many other items with sentimental value – all piled up for collection by the council at some future date.

While Jane’s family did receive some help from volunteers, who helped her pile up the silt, there’s currently nowhere for that silt to go – so it sits in large heaps on her property.

CYCLONE GABRIELLE’S EFFECTS CONTINUE

For much of the country, Gabrielle has come and gone – but for people like Jane, and many of those living in affected regions, it’s impact remains a harsh reality, with no end in sight.

“It’s like a bereavement,” she said.

“Everybody comes around you for that initial time, then it gets back to normal – but it’s not just the rest of the country, it’s probably people as close as Napier – people don’t know what’s happened within ten minutes of them.

“This is not going to go away any time soon, unfortunately – I would think minimum 12 months, probably 18.”

- Jane Lysaght

Jane is still waiting on insurance assessments. She says the loss of value on her property means that selling up and shifting away isn’t an option. So they will rebuild, if they can.

In the meantime, Jane has been back to work at the ANZ Taradale branch for a few days at a time, where she has found she has a unique understanding of the needs of cyclone-impacted customers.

As for her own needs, Jane says ANZ has been there to support her all the way through, especially Edwina, and ANZ Taradale Branch Manager Peter Gray.

“They’ve both been fantastic,” Jane said.

In the months following the flood, Jane's family also suffered an additional blow of having thousands of dollars worth of equipment, which had only just been replaced, stolen from their property in a burglary.

While the new items were insured, it felt like "kicking a dog while it's down", Jane said, and forced the family to also spend money on additional security measures.

Edwina said affected staff have as much flexibility as they need, including time off work, while they get things back in order.

“If they have lost a home, it’s not even a question around whether they should be back at work – it’s about giving people the time they need to get their lives back in order,” Edwina said.

“We're also looking at what extra specific things we can do for those who are more severely affected, and we have an employee assistance programme in place for those who need it.”

The effects of Gabrielle will be long-lasting for many – not only for people like Jane, but for ANZ customers whose financial circumstances may have changed dramatically.

The message for customers that Edwina most wanted to share was simple - come and see us.

“Some of the stories of people walking through the door have been really harrowing,” she said, “and that need, from a financial perspective, is likely to continue for a long time.

“We do have support available for customers that need it, we have a really well-established hardship programme, and if people need help, they should come to us."

ANZ New Zealand has donated $3 million to communities affected by Cyclone Gabrielle.