In Te Awanga, Jo Speedy said she began packing and was ready to evacuate but decided to remain after closely watching conditions.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe sea was quite calm, so I made the choice to stay here,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Speedy, who was with her dog Ralph, said she stayed alert throughout the night.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was very aware \u2026 no one can beat the sea.”<\/p>\n
She said she had grab bags and supplies in her car ready to go but put them back on Monday morning.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe had a lovely big sea with huge waves out there, but nothing touched us,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cNo electricity went off, and we didn\u2019t have much rain. It was almost a false alarm, but it\u2019s good to be prepared.\u201d<\/p>\n
She said most of her neighbours also decided to stay, with the community rallying around each other, communicating throughout the storm.<\/p>\n
Richard Williams, who has lived in Te Awanga for nearly three decades, said his household had multiple back-up plans in place, but staying was their first option.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe had a plan A, B and C,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe prepared to move. The caravan was loaded the car was hooked up.\u201d<\/p>\n
Despite the communications around evacuation, Williams said he was advised by police that it was not mandatory.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve been here since 1997, so it\u2019s not our first canoe ride.<\/p>\n
\u201cHere in Te Awanga, we all stayed because we\u2019ve been through it before.\u201d<\/p>\n
Jane Williams with dog Louie and Richard Williams with Basil outside the caravan at their Te Awanga property, prepared as a back-up if conditions worsened. Photo \/ Rafaella Melo<\/p>\n
His wife, Jane Williams, was alone with their dogs, Louie and Basil, when Gabrielle hit, and used the couple\u2019s caravan to handle the power cut.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have done enough work ourselves to protect our property,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are pretty resilient.\u201d<\/p>\n
In Haumoana, most residents also decided to stay.<\/p>\n
Ray Bland said he did not evacuate as he felt confident, because his property was higher than others.<\/p>\n
\u201cI have an idea of what the sea is going to do,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve been here for 25 years, and we\u2019ve seen 7m swells, and I\u2019ve only seen it come over the cycleway twice.\u201d<\/p>\n
For Adrian Cowie, the evacuation orders were \u201can overreaction\u201d, and the only preparation he made was parking his car facing the road, so he could leave quickly if needed. <\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve lived here for 10 years and surfed out here for 40 years. I know what the sea does,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI look after my 90-year-old mother fulltime. If I thought there was danger, I\u2019d be getting her out of here.\u201d<\/p>\n
Adrian Cowie at his Haumoana home, with his vehicle positioned for a quick departure if needed. Photo \/ Rafaella Melo<\/p>\n
One Haumoana resident told Hawke\u2019s Bay Today that their neighbour had evacuated but had not yet returned.<\/p>\n
Hastings District Council\u2019s emergency management controller Craig Cameron said the evacuation orders were all mandatory and focused on residents\u2019 safety.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe mandatory order was focused on those areas most at risk,\u201d Cameron said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is disappointing that people chose not to comply.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf the weather had proceeded as forecasted, they risked putting the lives of rescuers in danger.\u201d<\/p>\n
It was unclear how many had not complied as the council and police did not keep a record of those who failed to evacuate or returned after being advised to evacuate, he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In Te Awanga, Jo Speedy said she began packing and was ready to evacuate but decided to remain…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":377699,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[1561,9191,48901,1549,1976,42,10055,12514,5829,43,5006,6848,530,61,40,38,41,39,4276],"class_list":{"0":"post-377698","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-bay","9":"tag-coastal","10":"tag-decided","11":"tag-evacuation","12":"tag-hawkes","13":"tag-headlines","14":"tag-ignored","15":"tag-leave","16":"tag-many","17":"tag-news","18":"tag-not","19":"tag-orders","20":"tag-residents","21":"tag-to","22":"tag-top-news","23":"tag-top-stories","24":"tag-topnews","25":"tag-topstories","26":"tag-why"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/377698","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=377698"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/377698\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/377699"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=377698"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=377698"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=377698"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}