Precipice
Stories of landslides and community restoration in Muriwai New Zealand following the devastating 13 February 2023 Cyclone Gabrielle.
Instagram @precipicepodcastnz
Precipice
I Feel Everybody's Pain. Cyclone Gabrielle Hits Muriwai. Ep. 9 Precipice Podcast.
Use Left/Right to seek, Home/End to jump to start or end. Hold shift to jump forward or backward.
Jackie Mason has lived in Muriwai for more than 20 years in Domain Crescent and was a school teacher at the local school for many years. Jackie shares her experiences and perspectives of the night and the aftermath of Cyclone Gabrielle as an 80 year old woman living on her own.
Jackie lived close to the landslides and shares the most challenging aspects of the disaster,
She talks about how Cyclone Gabrielle affected her mentally, emotionally and physically, how she found living with and relying on family for nearly 8 months while her house was red stickered and how it felt to return to Domain Cres and how she feels 3 years on.
Precipice launched on July 20th 2026. 3 seasons will be released across 4 weeks and then the full series of 26 episodes will be available for you to listen to at your leisure.
Season 1: Cyclone Gabrielle Hits Muriwai
Season 2: Disaster Recovery and Community Restoration
Season 3: Community Initiatives after a Cyclone
Listen on You Tube https://www.youtube.com/@precipicepodcast
Follow on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/precipicepodcast
Hosted and produced by Mandy Jakich. Commissioned and funded by Muriwai Community Association, supported by the Auckland Council Recovery Office.
On the 13th of February 2023, the small vibrant coastal community of Murawai Beach, northwest of Auckland, New Zealand, was ripped apart by Sonic Loner Gabrielle. This podcast captures what happened on the night and in the days, months and years that followed. Join me, Mandy Jakich, as I speak to fellow Muriwai locals, volunteers and those involved in the emergency and recovery effort. Hear about their experiences of lost and upheaval, the impact on their lives, and the community-led initiatives that helped Murruai find a way forward. Welcome to Precipice. Jackie Mason joins me in this episode. Jackie has lived in Muriwai for more than 20 years in Domain Crescent, and she was a school teacher at the local school for many years. Jackie shares her experiences and perspectives of the night and the aftermath of Cyclone Gabrielle as an 80-year-old woman living on her own. Jackie lived close to the landslides and shares the most challenging aspects of the disaster.
JackieOh the Fireman's death was the worst. And their families, you know. I I don't I can't it's very hard to talk about it in a way because it was I felt I felt like I was feeling the pain of everybody. Almost, if you know what I mean, and I probably think everybody else felt like that too.
MandyShe talks about how Cyclone Gabrielle affected her mentally, emotionally, and physically. How she found living with and relying on family for nearly eight months while her house was red stickered, how it felt to finally return to her house in Domain Crescent, and how she feels three years on.
JackieI think something strong has come out of this and I'm sure that I've been strengthened in some way by it. So please take heart if you're an old person. Oh, thank you, Mandy. It's good to be here. Um my name's Jackie Mason. Um I live in Domain Crescent in Muriwai. When I was working, I've been retired for several years. I've just turned 80, which is formidable, but good in lots of ways. Before I retired, I was a school teacher for many, many years and also a um an English lecturer at the College of Education in during the 90s and 2000s. So I've been around a lot of places and I do know the Muriwai community quite well. The children of the era that I taught at Waimaku School are now adults.
MandyCould you please tell us um before Cyclone Gabrielle hit, what were you expecting and what had you heard about the event?
JackieUm I had h our our electricity went off at two o'clock in the afternoon, but before that I had been listening and I had been thinking about my responsibility, but didn't really have any sense of what it might really be like. But but because uh uh the um media said that we should be re prepared, I had um I had packed a a fairly small bag with a a couple of changes of clothes, very few clothes, and and all my other things that I needed that were essentials, plus a um my computer for work that I had parceled up very tenderly, and I put them by the door. Um and so I felt that if, you know, if we did have to leave home, but I never really seriously thought we would have to, really, at the time, I have to say.
MandyTell us about the night of the cyclone, you know, from that time at two o'clock when the power actually went off. What sort of what did what happened and and what were you noticing and and when did you start realizing how serious it was?
JackieWell, um I I think I just sort of carried on normally. We we do get a fair I've had a fair few power cuts out at Muriwai, so I'm sort of very I very much know what to do with them, and I went to bed at a normal time, but by then the storm had built up so much that it was hard to go to sleep. I still didn't think there was any problem, and I slept very little. And at about maybe 12 o'clock I was fully awake because it had become so intense and I was felt very restless. I sort of had I don't know if I even had my ca my candles on or anything, but I felt very restless and the the w rain was so powerful and wind. Um I still didn't think anything was wrong though, but I think it was around about one o'clock that the firemen started to come up the hill and knock on doors. I think that was what happened. And it's all a bit of a blur now in a way. But um before that I was looking out the window across the valley, and I could see a red light, and I thought, how I thought, is that a fire? Because I could hear a siren as well, and it was a particularly different sort of siren from the one we usually hear, and it was quite low and it wasn't stopping, and so I knew something was wrong, but it didn't nothing seemed to add up and make sense. So I just kept sort of looking, going back and looking and feeling a bit worried, and then I think I saw the firemen coming up the hill. Didn't know what they were coming up the hill for, they were looking at the ditch on the other side of the road, actually, but then they started to come down and knock and say, get out, get out. Um they didn't spend much time telling me me, but they went next door and talked a bit longer. So my neighbour, she got in touch somehow, and she said, You must come with us. And so when I went outside, I grabbed the bag and I left the computer behind. I didn't even think to pick it up. I thought, oh, you know, whatever, and picked up the bag and went over next door, and the wind was so incredible walking into the wind and rain, it was like need real needles on my face. I couldn't believe it. When I got over to the neighbours, they had already loaded their car, so they put my stuff in the back and off we went, and I sat in the back. And I've driven up Motutara Road hundreds of times, but uh not Motutara Waitea, and we we laboured up Waitea Road very slowly because no we couldn't see. It was just so black. And we were going up the hill and going to go to some friends um just up on Oaia Road to spend the rest of the night there. The person driving the car, my neighbour, had to go past the gate three times before she could actually see it and see. So on third time lucky, we she got in the gate and we and we were expected, and they people came out to help us and bring us inside, and we all sort of there were about ten to twelve of us all together, and we just sat in a sort of circle, and I knew nothing much, and neither did anybody else, but we knew there'd been something we knew there'd been some something happened, and I think maybe some people knew there'd been slips, landslides. Um I can't remember the detail, but but during that evening I went out and they were making cups of tea in the kitchen and they had little radio on a battery, and I heard that we all heard who were in the kitchen that one of them a Fyman was missing. And um and it was terrible. We just didn't it was just terrible, we couldn't um I couldn't speak or anything. I felt so chilled by it. It was just a terrible feeling. And um so we were we were all just sort of devastated really. Um I think we went to bed or you know, there was beds for us at about we perhaps went at four o'clock or three or something like that. Um I woke very early at about six o'clock and bizarrely I got a text from a friend in town who had come in during the night while I was asleep saying, How are you? Are you all right? So she maybe had heard something on the phone. It was very bizarre because we were just no communications. Anyway, at about six, seven o'clock, one of the one of the people who was in the house offered to drive me along OIR Road and up into Constable Road where my daughter lives, and to take me there. Um and he was the weather was still very bad, but it wasn't raining anymore. It was very windy. I was quite happy, they've got a very long drive, and I was quite happy to walk down there by myself, but he insisted on going with me. And my daughter met us at the door, and they had not heard about the disaster until 7 30 that morning. They heard it on their radio. They had more comms than we did down in the valley of Muriwai. And um well they had a battery radio, I think. And she heard about it on the radio and panicked, trying to find me, and of course couldn't get hold of me. And um her husband had also panicked and he'd gone gone in the car to look for me down to the surf club. So that's another very long story because he went from the surf club, couldn't find me there, then went into Waimauku Hall where he was directed to go. And they they couldn't find me there, and they he'd just set out to go to the Northern Arena when my daughter managed to um rush up the top of the hill and catch him on her cell phone and say that I was safe and that I had arrived at their house. So he he did a bit of a um futile dash looking for me. Yeah. But scary for everybody. Scary. They were so they were just um shattered too. And then of course the the news filter started to filter in. Um I was sort of blank by then with shock and um very grateful to the people who'd helped me to come. I mean, I'm relatively able-bodied and I was quite prepared to take my car, but I think I did the right thing in the end by going with the neighbours and they wouldn't have let me go, you know, they would have bundled me into the car anyway.
MandyBut isn't it amazing in an event like this in a community? You know, you you really have to look after the people around you too.
JackieI know, yeah. They um they're incredible.
MandyAnd where you were, Jackie, we well, where you are now, where you still live. Yeah. It was just a few properties up that the one of the one of the first houses came down and they used to call it did they call it the Pancake House or something because it was completely flattened.
JackieI'm not sure how that happened. I think it must have just it didn't have anything on top of it, it just had collapsed. And that was um one property but one, but it was passed as a sort of an abutment a couple of houses up, so it was beyond that. Yeah.
MandyAnd that was the the house that was on or near the property that actually had a landslide in the nineteen sixties.
JackieIt was, yeah. Yeah, and one person died. Yeah. I knew about that landslide when I bought the house actually, because I remembered it. But um I didn't feel that there was any problem. No, that's a crazy thing, isn't it?
MandyThat that happened and then it happened again, you know. I know. Sixty years later. Yep. So you got to your daughter's house and that is in Constable Road, which is um it's still part of Muriwai, but it's it's further away from where all the landslides were happening. Yeah. And is quite sort of it's kind of on the cliff but much higher ground. How did you feel once you got there?
JackieUm well, I knew I was safe there for the time being. Um, but I didn't have any feelings of anxiety at that stage at all. I felt kind of like empty really. Um, and almost like a robot some of the time. And I think I was probably suffering from shock. But it yeah, I I don't know. So I didn't I didn't worry about wasn't worrying about my house that had been intact when I left it, and I didn't really realise just the extent of what had happened basically. I'd had no clue at all. I still remember the first walk I took with Danielle from home. And um and we went down down the beach and I looked back and I could see all the scarring of the the landscape and it was just, you know, incredible to see how much there was. That was shocking, wasn't it? Yeah, it was terrible shock.
MandyWhat were the challenges do you think, your biggest challenges that you faced straight away?
JackieOh, the fireman's death was the worst. Uh and their families, you know. I d I don't I can't it's very hard to talk about it in a way because it was I felt I felt like I was feeling the pain of everybody almost, if you know what I mean. And I probably think everybody else felt like that too. We you know, without being in each other's pockets, we're very close here and we've all got something in common and that's this beautiful place. So I just think there is a bond that we don't really are very conscious of really sometimes. And um our people are our people. I didn't know either of the men personally or their families. Um, but my family did. And um I didn't really need to know them to feel that pain. Fairly soon we went down to the surf club when the water went down, I don't know when that was, but fairly soon afterwards, to um to sort of a community hub where we could go and talk to people and get advice about our properties and our rights. I think it no, sorry, it wasn't the surf club straight away, it was at the Rangers. They had a little place there, didn't they? Sorry, I getting ahead of myself. But and there I saw many distressed people. Like visibly distressed people, and and so I did for some time after that when it shifted to the surf club as well. People were anxious and distressed visibly. I did feel distressed, I think, but I think I something I thought about was that I think I actually didn't attend to my own distress and anxiety because I felt it was not as extreme as many, many, many other people in Middleware. And so I perhaps didn't look after myself as well as I should have. Yeah, that's really interesting actually.
MandyAnd you are that kind of person who who would just think of others before yourself.
JackieWell I did do that.
MandyYou weren't probably processing the emotions like I don't feel as if I did properly.
JackieI'm not sure though. I felt quite um accepting if if I was gonna lose my house, I was gonna lose it. But then I didn't lose it, so I don't know what I would have felt like if I had. Yeah. Might have just been an you know, kind of an illusion or something.
MandyBut that was that must have been quite challenging. I mean, you've been in Muriwai for twenty years in that house, and it's a lovely home which is so perfect for you, and you've got a gorgeous garden and you know, a lovely spot. But I imagine you would have felt quite vulnerable there because it really wasn't very far away from slopes behind you and that kind of thing. So so what were you how were you actually feeling in those in that sort of first week about the fact that you may never go home to your to your home?
JackieI don't think I thought about it very much. I think I think what took my thoughts was more the you know, the the firemen and the funerals made it I didn't go, but I I looked at the live stream of one of them just for a few minutes, but I couldn't stay on it. I was I just this tremendous pain I had for everybody. It wasn't a a bad pain in a way, it was a very caring pain if there's such a thing. But it was really quite overwhelming. And did you get to the stage where you did you did start thinking about your house? Um no. I knew it was still there and I that it was okay because my neighbours went back the next day. They'd left a cat behind. They went to look for their cat and were allowed to go and look for it for some reason. And but on the so it was on a Monday night, I think. On the Friday, we thought, oh, we'd try and do that too. And so my son-in-law took me down and we managed to get permission to go out for ten minutes. And so I actually went in then after several days and saw that it was okay. And they did let us go in. I snatched my car and took it down the hill, and my um my daughter and my son-in-law had instructions to do certain things, and they those he was supposed to turn off the electricity and he forgot. He rushed upstairs and started putting clothes into a bag for me. When I got back up home, I found he'd put in about 10 scarves because he was sticking all these things in the bag. Um my daughter ran and followed her list very assiduously as she does. But um so we we managed to and I got my computer, which I really needed, and um and my car, which made a huge difference to the fact that I could feel a bit more independent. But that did put my mind at rest about the fact that the house hadn't been by any secondary slips or anything like that. We did have quite a quite a a nasty little one just up the track, which is by by my house. Um but it's certainly nothing like what was on the other side of that sort of jutting out area.
MandyAt some point you must have been, you know, it might have been weeks later, you must have been wondering if you'd ever be able to go home. And you were staying with your daughter and your son-in-law. Yeah. How how did it feel being reliant on on family like that?
JackieUm it was fine most of the time. Sometimes I felt a bit that I wasn't helping enough, you know. I'm used to doing housework and that. But um of course they wanted me to not uh stress about anything, so they've really looked after me. And so I had sometimes a little bit of conflict that I shouldn't be I should be doing the vacuuming or something like that, but it was or I should be cooking dinner, that sort of thing. But it it sort of evened out as time went by. I always felt I should have cooked more dinners. But um it I honestly my family were so extraordinarily good to me and and happy about me being there. They actually quite enjoyed it, I think. And I don't and I don't think we ever had I think one time I was a bit distressed about something, but that was way on into the six months, six or so months. Um and I noticed my son a look go across my son-in-law's face because he wouldn't have liked to have seen me distressed. But that was the only I mean he was amazing because I wasn't his mother, I was his mother-in-law. I've always had a good relationship with him, but he was just fantastic. I even got cups of tea in bed, which is very nice.
MandyThat's good. It's it's an interesting um relationship, you know. Living with family can be can be challenging or tricky. Yeah. You were actually in their house for was it about nine months?
JackieProbably about seven and a half uh six and a half, I think. I think it was August, uh September I went back or August. Might have been the end of August.
MandySo this is really interesting to me, you know, the fact that you stayed in Muriwai afterwards with family, and then you came back to your home.
JackieYeah.
MandyUm, and quite a lot of people didn't get to come back to their homes. Like as we know, you know, sixty-eight homes were not able to be lived in. So how did it feel for you when you came back to your house?
JackieWhen I finally came home. Well, since um was February, probably the end of March, after about six or seven weeks, I was allowed to go in during the day because my category was downgraded from red to yellow. And so I didn't go every day. I went back and I I made sure everything was in the right place, and I I think I turned the power off at that point and we emptied the fridge, that's right. We had a big fridge emptying day, but because it had been on, the things in it were not that bad. We just h chucked them all into a clean sack and it was picked up, but um not the rotting things that people had because my son-in-law had forgotten to turn it off, so it was a good thing. Yeah. Anyway, so um when I went back, um I felt very, very uneasy at night for quite some time. My daughter had said to me um as I left, anytime just come back up if you're starting to feel. So I had that, and I was lucky to have that. Not everybody has that opportunity. I didn't go. Back up, I felt that um I felt it was really important for me to face up to what was coming up in me. So I did start to do that then in terms of um anxiety about what what might be still going to happen in terms of landslides and things. And um I've still got that to this day when it rains. And when it rains really heavily it comes back up pretty badly sometimes. But um I still haven't been up to Danielle's. So you still stay at your house when it's raining? I do. I do know the signs that I saw when it when the slips came and they were a lot worse than anything I've seen since. And what what did you actually see? Well the the water rushing down the road was incredible. Like it it does rush down the road when in heavy weather, it had done previously, but nothing like this. And I mean it was so dark when we left I couldn't see any flooding, but there was flooding everywhere. I think everything was okay when I went back, apart from that apprehension at night. I kept up to date with the local bulletins and the, you know, the websites and things like that about what was going on and and the term P is it P post traumatic PTSD came up, which I had probably heard before, but I'd never really thought about much. And I read somewhere that somebody had said, one of the counsellors had said that they hadn't encountered anybody who hadn't have it. And I thought, well, maybe I've got it, and maybe these are some of the symptoms. I didn't ever go to a counsellor. Um I'm not saying I don't I have been to a counsellor once in my life before and they're very they were very helpful. But I I didn't I didn't feel the need, I felt I felt quite driven to try and deal as much as I could myself. At one point I thought I really might need to consider it, but I I think I must have toughed out of it in the end. I don't know whether I did the right thing there or not.
MandyAnd what were you feeling that that made you think you might have some form of post-traumatic syndrome?
JackieOh, because I did get anxiety bouts of anxiety, some of which were really extreme, and yet they were not always they weren't related always to the situation here. So it seemed to sort of manifest in all sorts of other things as well. And and one day I had I do a bit of voluntary work for a publishing company, and I they had a Zoom meeting, and this is really bizarre. Uh there was a very bad start thunderstorm before I before we had the meeting at Danielle's and their house felt as if it had been hit by lightning and there was rain and the lightning was so close it came, it felt like it was in the in the room, and we all got a terrible freight. And I think the internet must have gone down or something. I said, I'm going home, because I was allowed to go home. And the family didn't want me to go, and I said, Well, look, I'll go to the shop first and see if there's any and and then went to the cordon and there was no problem, so I went home and um had the Zoom meeting there, and I said I had told Dani I promised I'd be home at twelve and I didn't get back by twelve, and she called and she was so upset, and I immediately went out of the meeting and went home, and I felt terrible. It was only about five past twelve. So they'd been worrying all the time. Um and I think having brought the kids up by myself, the two girls, um as children, and then into you know, into teens and that and early twenties, they we're very close, little closely knit. And my problems are their problems, and the other way around, if you know what I mean. So I wasn't very considerate that day, and I I wished I hadn't done that. And I felt very distressed about it, probably more distressed than I normally would feel. Yeah. So so all the emotional things that came up that were difficult were probably heightened, I think, and and still are. I mean, I remember being up at Walkworth, and every time I heard a siren for quite a while after, I would just start to cry. So it was um it was probably about six weeks later I was up visiting my daughter and I was in the in the car park of the New World up there, and the sirens went off there, but they were so close that they were almost I felt like they were right beside me, and I wept and wept and wept. I had to go and sit in the car and control myself or you know, get over it before I went into the into the supermarket. So yeah, I think I did have a bit of PTSD, if not a lot, because I still can get over anxious in a way that I've never been before. One time I noticed my hands were shaking. I've never ever had hand shaking hands. Mm, yeah, your body was reacting and it was yeah.
MandyYeah, well it was such a crazy massive event for our community. And do you feel like you've you're coming right?
JackieYou feel like you're more yourself or you're still feeling I can certainly hear a siren without bursting into tears now. Um I don't know if I ever will. But that you know, I mean I'm not concerned about that because I don't think you can maybe cancel can help, I don't know, but I'm inclined to think it's I I would prefer it to happen naturally for me if it's going to happen. And I'm certainly better um when things come up, but as you have seen in this, the thought of those men is it overwhelms me still.
MandyIt's very triggering, isn't it?
JackieOh, really it is.
MandyOur community of Muriwai had some incredible initiatives and and amazing things sort of in response to the disaster. What kind of help or support did you get involved with? Or what kind of programs did you take part in?
JackieOh, hang on hang on, I think I went to I did go to all the community meetings that were held. Um and I joined the website Restore Muriwai that I can't remember the name. Yeah, Restore Muriwai. And um I certainly spent a lot of time going down to the surf club and um during those early days when people could go down my daughter took me down there to get some clothes because I need two changes of clothes at first. Um and so I met a lot of people down there while I was there that I that I both that I knew but and hadn't known. But when I did go down there I met I met different people that I knew. If you know, I went down quite a few days. So I met some of the teachers who live out here that I know and uh and heard their stories. You hear people's stories and they're quite extraordinary, really. Another another family whom I've known for a long time because um I taught their daughter plus the um father is my um plumber, wonderful family, had a had a dog and they were living in the camping ground and and they lived down on Motutara Road but weren't allowed to their house, but the dog kept trying to go back. So he would run up to the cordon and get stopped at the cordon. They'd bring him back again. I remember that. Do you remember that? Did you hear about it? Yeah. I s I found that the most gorgeous story when she told me.
MandyAnd there's so many animal stories. I mean, it's just beautiful how animals are just another member of the family that need to be taken care of. And all the all the ones that had been left behind and were found again, incredible. Yeah, yeah, some amazing stories. And some of the animals that were missing for a long time. Yes, you know, were finally found. Yeah. Do you think the event changed your relationships with neighbours or even with your family?
JackieGosh, that's an interesting question. I I'm not I haven't thought about that. Um my fa with my family m my my son-in-law, I I feel closer to him now. And he's a very warm, caring man. Um but he's you know, uh he's a son-in-law, so perhaps perhaps a distance. It's just a little little bit distant from my daughter, of course. So I I feel a lot of warmth towards him now. I don't say I never felt it, but you know, I feel a lot now towards him. And my daughter. I don't think our relationship's that much different, but she might have a different story. I don't think it is though.
MandyAnd you've always you've always had a great relationship with with her.
JackieVery close to my both my daughters, yeah. I went up my people seem to want to see my face to be convinced that I was still alive, actually. One of my sisters was flying up from the South Island where she'd been examining dance, and she came, she lives in Leigh, and she came right round to Muriwai on the way home to s look at me and see that I was actually there. And my other daughter up in in Warkworth was the same. She wanted to see me, so my daughter here, we drove up together, and and the one up there had been and made me a care a little p care p thing. I don't know whether I didn't have my clothes or what, but she'd put on all these wonderful things. I felt really moved by that at the time that she had thought about she knew me and she knew what I would need. So there was a little pad in there to you I'd be writing. Yeah, so and all that sort of thing. So there was all sorts of things in there. Amazing.
MandyAnd you must have felt a sort of another connection with your neighbours who kind of cared for you on night.
JackieYes, definitely. I mean, I've always been we've always been friendly, very friendly, and care at care for each other, but um next level. Yeah. Yeah.
MandyThat's that's one of the positives that's that comes out of an event like this for a yeah, for a community. Um do you think there are any impacts that people might not see or understand? Can you give me an example? Um Are there other impacts that that have happened that people might not be aware of, like something that you're on feeling or or just on the community in general?
JackieWell, no children walk down my road very often now. And being an ex-school teacher, I've always enjoyed seeing them little running past for the bus and that. Um now I don't know how to talk about this because I've only just thought about it, but um to me I used to hear the kids playing. Now that's just seems like a little thing, but it's it's a it's quite a big thing. And um one impact on me was that I didn't really know how much my home meant to me until I had to leave it. And it was a f it was not a particular feeling, it was just a sense of the way I belonged there in my home and my property, my garden, that sort of thing. So it wasn't anything violently disturbing, but it was quite a strong thing there that that surfaced because I'd probably just taken it for granted forever. Um but the other thing is the families who left and their impact on me, the ones that I knew. And also the taking away of the houses and right next door to me over the track, two of the little houses there. Well, there's no one living in them, but they had they've been just only two weeks ago the second one went, so they've s I don't know if they've finished now, but they seem to be quite close to to finishing moving things or demolishing. Yeah. And that has gone on for now for so long. Um just recently we were we were warned to um get our cars off the road um because a car house was coming down in over two nights in four pieces. And it actually came down a bit earlier than they said it was going to come. And and I've seen so many go past, but at least I know that one was going to be put together again, so it wasn't quite as it's not quite as searing as seeing a truck going down full of stuff. Yeah. It's come from a house. So and I know I'm very close with someone further up the road who's relocated to Fungapuro, and I go up I haven't been up a lot, but I've been up to visit her, and she's she and her family have made a lovely home there. They're quite close to the water there. They're happy there. They've just created, done some renovations and they're getting on, and the their their children uh or child is is you know happy at school. It's it's good. But every time it rains, I get a message from her. And she said every time it rains, she feels she feels that night again. Oh, I don't know if that's exactly right, but you know, she was reminded of it even up there. She wants to check on you, make sure you're right. She does want to check, but she also feels something about that that night.
MandyOne image that I'll never forget was looking from the golf club one night, and there's just these long black strips where there's no people in their homes. Even before the homes were the houses were actually removed, it's that sort of all of these people are displaced and out of their homes, and then there'll be a few lights where people can be back, and then there's another big long strip, and that's just that I found that very sobering. I see that every night looking across from me across the valley to here. So after all this impact and all this trauma, have you ever thought about leaving Muriwai?
JackieI have thought about it, but I've thought about it in terms of whether I'll be able to drive a car or have a driver's licence, and in terms of whether I can walk okay or not. And so all being well, um they will be the reasons that I think about it. Um it is daunting sometimes. I get a sense of the um of the people that have been there and gone again. And and it it feels sort of empty-ish, as I think I said about the children and that it can feel a bit like that, but it is still itself. And I think I've been known to say as long as I can walk or drive or both or whatever, I would like to stay. I mean, obviously I'm getting old now, and so circumstances can change very quickly, but that's what I think at the moment. So I have entertained leaving, but not because of what's happened.
MandyDo you have any advice for communities going through a similar event?
JackieWell, I think I think as you've brought up already, get involved with what's happening. Don't shut yourself away, whether you're safe or whatever. And um because it's through that that you will actually get the strength to survive if if we're thinking about yourself. But also it'll give you that compassion towards others that when you see their predicaments and you get some sort of perspective about it, um, through others' experiences as well. Don't be like me and think that you don't have to look after yourself, or I didn't really think that, but I just didn't do it very well. And try and remember yourself and amongst it all, and and know what you're going through a bit better than I did, because it didn't really surface with me. What do you think the community of Muriwai did very well? Uh communication and um also I've heard many stories of what it was like in the surf club that night with all the people in it and animals and goodness knows what else, and I think did the army come in at one stage? I mean the whole thing was you know, it was extraordinary and how everybody cooperated, I think. So um but I think that happens naturally. Um I think now Muriwai is we're working towards having a very careful plan for any sort of um any sort of disaster of any sort and um I think they've they're doing that very, very well. My family I know is doing it very well too because I've been up and sat and we've gone through all the things that we need to do now in order to feel prepared, not just safe, but prepared for something. Um what else did Muriwai do well? I think through the local Gannett there was a lot of um a lot of information plus the websites and I I never felt as if I didn't know anything. I mean, just for me, getting getting the insurance people in to sit and talk to us was extraordinary. I had no idea that my coverage in my insurance went as far as it did. I just thought it covered the shell of the house because I obviously didn't read the fine print. But it actually gave me financial support, some financial support during that time I was in my family's home. And and also I don't know how whether this is standard or not, but we were able to access cards for the warehouse and um Woolworths, it's called now, I think. And and so for emergencies for food and and things like that was so good. And our meetings were there was a couple of lively ones, but but you know, they were in the main, people were very, very asking marvellous questions and speaking from their experience in in a very sensible way, and we all wanted the same thing, and that was to get clarity and and to try and um rebuild.
MandyAnd is there something hopeful or meaningful you'd like to leave us with?
JackieSupport your firemen, please. Look after them. Try and be as good a part of your community as you can be.
MandyAs someone who has just had their 80th birthday, end of last year, what would you say to other women of your age or other people of your age who have also gone through a similar weather event?
JackieWell, I don't know if it's come out in what I've said already, but it's it may sound weird, but it's not the end of the world, no matter what. People who've had more to contend with than I have have have shown me that. Um and I've learnt so much. Um you never stop learning while you're alive, I don't think, myself. Uh I could talk all day about the acts of compassion and kindness and that have come my way and have come other people's way that I've witnessed. I I I've got a huge admiration for humankind and their potential. We we look outside at some of the terrible things that are happening as we see it, but humans are innately good. And a family, really. I'm getting a bit lofty here, sorry. But I believe that that some I think something strong has come out of this, and I'm sure that I've been strengthened in some way by it. So please take heart if you're an old person. I always I always think this day will end if it's been a bad day. And it does, and new day is a fresh day, and that's how we're gonna do it.
Mandy
