Hawke's Bay Today newspaper

This Hawke’s Bay Today newspaper was published as a free edition on Friday 17 February 2023, after the devastating Cyclone Gabrielle struck Aotearoa New Zealand between 12 and 16 February 2023. The paper was completely devoted to the aftermath of the cyclone, with news, public notices, food and water updates, and information on power, roads, and medicine. The paper’s editor, Chris Hyde, wrote: ‘Hawke’s Bay has been hit by the most destructive weather event to hit the region in living memory. Today’s is a free paper, not home delivered to subscribers due to the current impassable logistics of delivery, but available from certain supermarkets and other local stores. We hope this edition helps with information gaps that widespread power cuts, mobile outages and internet issues have caused…. Keep safe out there. Look after each other. We can get through this’ (p. 3).

Cyclone Gabrielle was a severe tropical cyclone felt over a wide area, including Taitokerau / Northland, Auckland, the Coromandel, Waikato, Bay of Plenty, Tairāwhiti / Gisborne and Hawke's Bay. The cyclone came close on the heels of Ex-Cyclone Hale (10-11 January) and the Auckland Anniversary Weekend floods (27 January). A national state of emergency was announced for only the third time in New Zealand’s history.

Gabrielle was the deadliest cyclone since Cyclone Giselle in 1968 and Cyclone Bola in 1988. It caused 11 deaths, major infrastructural damage, loss of homes, possessions and livelihoods. At the height of the cyclone’s impact, around 225,000 homes were without power, thousands of people were displaced as flood waters rose, and many communities were disconnected by damaged roads and bridges. There was extensive damage to key infrastructure in the east coast of the North Island, including roading, electricity, telecommunications, and water infrastructure. Damaging rainfall, winds and flooding hit the Hawke's Bay and Gisborne/Tairāwhiti regions the hardest. Forestry slash was swept down rivers, destroying roads and bridges, and filling beaches.

On the morning of 14 February, the Hawke’s Bay suffered huge floodwaters with stop banks breached, bridges destroyed, land and buildings consumed in silt, and power cut. Thousands of people were evacuated. A flash flood swept through the Esk Valley, with homes buried in silt up to their rooflines. Many people were caught out during the night and sought refuge on their rooftops before being rescued by helicopter.

Communities and cities were isolated from each other as bridges were damaged or destroyed (some bridges in rural areas are still out of action a year later). Napier, a city of 66,000 people, found itself isolated in every direction, without health services, power, roads, wastewater, drinking water, internet and cellphone networks. People quickly realised how vulnerable they were as Napier didn’t have a hospital (it closed in 1998 with main services concentrated in Hastings); it didn’t have police cells (also transferred to Hastings); and is dependent on bridges to cross the Tutaekuri and Ngaruroro rivers to get to Hastings.

When the Hawke’s Bay Redcliffe substation was damaged, power, phone and internet services were lost for a few days. Radio became a critical communication tool. Initially, the Hawke’s Bay Today newspaper was not able to be published with loss of power, but NZME (New Zealand Media and Entertainment) and the New Zealand Herald in Auckland managed to get NZME’s upper North Island dailies promptly back in print and available for free, including Hawke’s Bay Today.

Often social media and online outlets trump traditional news media in being able to quickly convey information on disasters, but with the devastation wrought by Cyclone Gabrielle on digital technology, print-based media and radio were better able to provide a clearer picture of the impacts and convey vital information and advice.

The scale of Cyclone Gabrielle and its impacts on people, the land and infrastructure continue to be sobering.