Owner of Morrissey’s clothing store Larry Sullivan said most of the plywood factory workforce were locals.
He said it was a hard time, but people were focused on taking care of each other.
“Everybody is sort of worried about individuals, you keep reeling off names when there’s a few guys standing around at the pub, ‘How’s this guy getting on’, ‘How’s that guy getting on’.
“So yeah, a lot of caring I think, and yeah, it’s just one punch after the other sort of thing at the moment.”
-RNZ