evacuated due to the risk of landslide over the weekend<\/a> – were yet to be given the all-clear.<\/p>\n![\"Hinerupe](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/4JU6TVX_621729185_864859839658897_4068365262204894171_n_jpg.jpeg\")
<\/p>\n
\nHinerupe Marae – the Civil Defence base and welfare centre in Te Araroa.
\nPhoto: Te Araroa Civil Defence \/ supplied\n<\/p>\n
Local Civil Defence kaimahi Trudi Ng\u0101whare said communities on the East Coast were no strangers to extreme weather, but it still took its toll.<\/p>\n
“You want to help, you want to get in there and help and do what you can, but all we could do was watch it happen – and that was horrible to be honest, and you really feel for our wh\u0101nau.<\/p>\n
“A few people woke up and… lost everything. And then we hear our Hicks Bay wh\u0101nau’s cut off, cut off for days.”<\/p>\n
She said the level of destruction has been surprising, leaving a nearby mountain range with “open gash wounds”.<\/p>\n
With multiple slips in the area, there was “quite a bit of mess,” and Ng\u0101whare begged people not to go sight-seeing.<\/p>\n
Since the torrential rain, Hinerupe Marae – the Civil Defence base and welfare centre in Te Araroa – had been humming, she said, hosting about 30-40 people at any one time.<\/p>\n
![\"Helpers](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/4JU6TVX_621816461_864860169658864_6089313895500197251_n_jpg.jpeg\")
<\/p>\n
\nHelpers at Hinerupe Marae – the Civil Defence base and welfare centre in Te Araroa.
\nPhoto: Te Araroa Civil Defence \/ supplied\n<\/p>\n
“A lot of people to feed… even our kitchen crew has been going hard.”<\/p>\n
Ng\u0101whare said the next few days would be more of the same, and responding to where the need was greatest.<\/p>\n
“The needs change everyday depending on how long your power’s out, how long your road’s closed.<\/p>\n
“Just keeping dynamic, I guess, and we’ll only know what we need as the day rolls on and plan for the next day.”<\/p>\n
She said the support from people “all around the motu” had been heard and felt, and wanted to express “huge gratitude” for everyone’s kind words, karakia, and donations.<\/p>\n
“We’ll get there.”<\/p>\n
Sign up for Ng\u0101 Pitopito K\u014drero, a daily newsletter<\/a> curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A slip blocking a road near Te Araroa. Photo: Te Araroa Civil Defence \/ supplied Four days on…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":252204,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[48,47,111,43,139,69,49,46,44,45],"class_list":{"0":"post-252203","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-zealand","8":"tag-audio","9":"tag-current-affairs","10":"tag-new-zealand","11":"tag-news","12":"tag-newzealand","13":"tag-nz","14":"tag-podcasts","15":"tag-public-radio","16":"tag-radio-new-zealand","17":"tag-rnz"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/252203","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=252203"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/252203\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/252204"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=252203"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=252203"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=252203"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/4JU6TVX_619664886_863021359842745_1414077609349099416_n_jpg.jpeg\")
<\/p>\n