As the weather wasn’t improving, Gray put out an SOS on the Tairua community Facebook page to see if anyone could get to him and open the garage.
“I see that Tairua is flooded, but if he has a car, he could move out of the danger zone,” she wrote.
Gray said she had an incredible response from the community.
“I tell you what, the people were amazing,” she said.
“Honestly, within five minutes, I had responses of ‘We’re heading down there now, we’ve seen him, the car’s out’, so I just can’t say enough for that community – it just rallies around.”
Gray said this wasn’t the first time the community had banded together to check on their neighbours.
“I remember [Cyclone] Gabrielle – and even the one before that – the community just seem to pull together and support one another with things like ‘get out and check on your neighbours, and look out for each other’,
“It’s just incredible.”
Her father’s car was taken out of the garage and moved to a drier spot, Gray said, and his house hadn’t flooded.
She said it was comforting to know people on Facebook were prepared to care for others.
“People heading down and they’ve shared it around, so obviously there’s more than one or two,” Gray said. “There’s a community of carers up there doing amazing work.”
– RNZ