It was still dark and raining when the chopper brought the first RSE workers to Puketapu School. Some resourceful local broke into the hall so the bedraggled apple pickers could be dry and safe. It was a relief to be away from the raging torrent that had flooded their dormitories. Soon there were 46 of them bedded down in the hall, sharing mattresses and food that flowed in from neighbours once the word went out.
When the rain stopped and the wind abated, the school itself was largely unscathed by the cyclone. True, the staffroom bargeboards showed a tideline and the playing field was deep in water, but there was little of the grey silt and forestry slash that had flowed through the valley and piled up 4 metres high, destroying neighbouring homes and orchards. Locals described much of the area as unrecognisable, a desert.
So it was natural that the little school, only 15 kilometres from Napier, but suddenly isolated by broken roads and communication networks, would become the hub of the region in this time of crisis. It was predictable too, that principal Chris Fox would play a key role in helping to co-ordinate the community response.
“I’ve been here for 15 years, so two thirds of the community have actually been through my office. That’s why I was able to direct a little bit,” says Chris.
Local stalwart and pub owner Mary Danielson linked in parts of the community that had no history of school contact and quickly the assembly hall and its kitchen became a relief and recovery centre for the region.
Each morning stand-up meetings of volunteers gathered, filling classroom whiteboards with lists of what was needed and assigning tasks. Within days food and clothing poured in and was distributed. Once the playing field drained, helicopters were able to deliver fuel and generators.
“We are a resilient, practical and interconnected community,” explains Chris. “During the first week a parent with a trucking business got together with others and started clearing the roads. Others were on diggers, clearing out each other’s houses. Everyone was working together for the whole community.
“On the third day after the flood someone said to me ‘In the face of a disaster there’s nowhere else that I’d rather be.’ That came from someone who’d lost their home and their job. It speaks volumes.”
Once a road opened the army arrived with toilets and showers for the muddy workers and gradually other agencies showed up. MSD, the Regional Council and insurance representatives eventually established themselves in the school hall, answering questions for an anxious community.
Throughout, Chris’s role was one of assessment, facilitation and co-ordination.
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Once it became apparent to principal Chris Fox that he had taken on a massive role, he asked his deputy and assistant principals Baz Hodgetts and Melanie Leach to take over the day to day running of the school, which opened eight days after the storm.
“I’d been on site from day three,” says Baz. “Other staff started coming when they could make it and we opened the school slowly. What kids could come did, and we put them in mixed spaces to begin with.”
The school was lucky that volunteer teachers came to help. The RTLB service also arrived offering relief to teachers, some of whom had lost homes and damage to property.
“I knew the community needed me. It’s part of our job; to love these children, keep them safe and give them that feeling of everything is OK. We had to get back.”
New entrant teacher Nicola Nelson returned to school just seven days after the cyclone struck. Her neighbourhood of lower Dartmoor had been devastated when the Tūtaekurī River burst through the valley, and she and her young family had made a rushed evacuation minutes before the area became completely isolated. Nicola remembers wading through the waist deep current at first light and realising the extent of the catastrophe.
“I said to my husband Matt, ‘It’s gone. We’re not going back.’ I thought we’d lost everything.” As it turned out their house was the only one on the flat of lower Dartmoor to avoid a red sticker but when they did return a week later, the house was surrounded by deep mud and thousands of fallen apples from neighbouring orchards, that had to be cleared to gain access.
Asked why she returned to school so soon despite her traumatic situation, Nicola is quick to explain.
“I knew the community needed me,” she says. “The children I teach are very young and many had only been at school a couple of weeks when the cyclone struck. Their families needed space to begin sorting out their lives and they wanted their children looked after by people they trusted. I know the rest of our staff felt the same way. It’s part of our job; to love these children, keep them safe and give them that feeling of everything is OK. We had to get back.”
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It wasn’t easy returning. With communication systems down staff did not know what to expect.
“The first priority was to see who had survived, who was homeless, who was around,” says Nicola. “Based on what I had seen I expected some deaths, so it was hard going through the roll to check every single child off. Were they present or accounted for? Had we had communication with the families? Did anyone know where they were?”
Gradually some clarity emerged. Through word of mouth, evening phone calls and smatterings of information from Facebook, staff were able to fill in gaps.
Over days and weeks children trickled back to school with their stories of the cyclone. Close to half of the 260 students had been adversely affected. Forty had lost their houses or family businesses and had to relocate, or move in with someone else.
Only ten children did not return to Puketapu School at all. Some were from families that had moved on, while in a few instances parents opted to send their children to boarding school while they began the daunting task of rebuilding ruined homes and businesses.
For many other children, getting to school had suddenly become a lengthy and arduous business. Three vital bridges had been damaged or washed away by the flooding. The loss of one near the village resulted in children taking a 50-minute bus journey rather than a ten-minute ride. Meanwhile children in two other communities crossed the river by boat and zip line.
The zip lines were initially set up by resourceful locals as a way of getting supplies to their isolated communities.
“Once school opened and roads were passable, the school bus was able to get near to these crossings,” says Chris. “A boat and an inflatable ferried the children across the river, and they walked up to 800 metres to the bus. The crossing where the Sacred Hill bridge had been, was a bit treacherous at times, so we didn’t see kids from there on rainy days. But it shows the determination of those communities to get their children back in school.”
Five weeks after the flooding a further ten students living in the Dartmoor area were still unable to make the journey and were attending a make-shift school in the front room of a local teacher.
“Just bringing those kids together gives them some degree of normality,” explains Chris. “Even better, the teacher has Starlink, so the children got to see their regular classmates online and learn what was happening at school.”
For children able to physically return, getting back together with classmates in familiar surroundings was a relief from a home situation which was often unfamiliar and stressful.
“The little ones saw some joy in it all,” says Nicola. “It was an adventure with new and interesting things like diggers and machinery everywhere. But at the same time there were situations that would suddenly upset some of them, like a sharp noise, the pop-pop of an approaching helicopter, or sound of rain. One child would be triggered into remembering the flood and there would be a domino effect in the classroom.”
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Dealing with anxiety and trauma has been a challenge for teachers and support staff.
“It’s new ground,” says junior school teacher Kerran Hall. “You don’t know what you’re dealing with. You have these little people coming in and you begin to hear their and stories and that can be confronting.”
Early on, the Traumatic Incidents Team came to the school and shared information with staff about what to expect from children and how to manage it. The Christchurch earthquake experience had informed much of their strategy.
“Their advice was very much about giving the kids a place to play and connect. They needed to come and relax, talk and return to a normal existence. For some of our children home was far from normal.”
For a time, the usual curriculum took a back seat. “We did a lot of mindfulness,” says Kerran. “And we did a lot of art.”
On the day Ako visited the school, children were outside engrossed in play-based activities run by Longworth Education.
“Play is therapeutic for the kids,” says Chris. “It keeps them in the moment so they’re not thinking about other things. We’ve made slight changes to the curriculum to make sure learning is active, involving the children physically because we know that helps their emotional wellbeing.”
At the same time the school has provided students with special experiences. There have been visits from various sporting celebrities, an ice cream truck and a donut truck.
“It’s new ground. You have these little people coming in and you begin to hear their and stories and that can be confronting.”
“What we’ve tried to do is give the children experiences that put smiles on their faces. Smiling, happy kids make for happy parents. If the kids can go home with positive happy stories at the end of the day, then that helps relax their parents too.”
For the first couple of weeks after the cyclone a wellbeing hub, staffed by Te Whatu Ora, operated out of one of the classrooms. It offered one-on-one, sibling or family counselling, while in a neighbouring room a doctor and nurse could be accessed by students and families.
“There’s been an ongoing need for counselling for about 20 of the kids and we’re expecting that number to grow,” says Chris.
“We are seeing some uncharacteristic behaviours, but that comes and goes. It’s a moving landscape where grief and anxiety can be triggered by small things. We have held a parents’ evening to share with families what they might expect from their children and how best to respond, and we will be doing more of that.”
The need to support families provided motivation for the school to establish a free lunch programme in the first weeks after the cyclone. Kerran Hall led the initiative.
“We really wanted to provide parents with more time and space so they could deal with what they had to deal with,” says Kerran. “It was one less thing for them to worry about.”
Kerran enlisted the support of Civil Defence who catered in the early stages, before other organisations and businesses got involved. Soon another teacher had a breakfast programme going as well.
“The meals were for everyone,” says Kerran. “You didn’t have to have lost anything. They just lessened the burden on families, and they were greatly appreciated.”
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By the end of term one Puketapu School was beginning to return to normal. The hub was finally being dismantled and the agencies were moving on. Most students were back in school and Chris Fox was looking forward to returning to his old routines. Baz Hodgetts who had led the school in Chris’s absence had nothing but praise for the staff who had supported the community and each other through a difficult time.
“The recovery will be on-going as the community waits for decisions about their futures. So support from staff will continue to be important.” he says. “There are a couple of staff members directly impacted, who’ve lost homes and businesses, and the rest of us have really rallied and made sure they were looked after.”
Upon questioning, teachers readily acknowledged feeling exhausted. It was clear too, that in dedicating so much effort caring for others, there had not been enough time for personal care.
Kerran Hall’s home overlooks the once lush Esk Valley, that is now a wasteland. Generations of hard work and family life have been washed away or buried under tonnes of silt. Each day since the deluge, she has left that behind to be with her students.
“Teachers are adaptable. We are classroom practitioners and psychologists, as well as skilled community people – and as a team we can achieve so much.”
“It’s been hugely impacting going from one devastated area to another. I’ve spent a lot of time cuddling children, helping them understand what they are feeling and trying to help them work through that. Taking home their stories has been hard, and for me there is always a visual reminder of what people have gone through and continue to grapple with. I went through a bit of guilt for a long time because I felt like I couldn’t do enough for these families who are my neighbours.”
Along with the physical and emotional toll, the educators at Puketapu have learned a lot about their own resilience and the role of the school and its teachers in a community. The whole experience has affirmed Nicola Nelson’s pride in her chosen profession.
“Teachers are adaptable. You can throw change at us, and we will respond quickly. If people need help, we will be there. That’s our job. I’m proud to be a teacher. We’re capable of so many things. We are classroom practitioners and psychologists, as well as skilled community people – and as a team we can achieve so much.”
Chris Fox agrees but says that the service and community role of schools needs greater emphasis, both in teacher and principal training.
“Schools aren’t just about teaching and learning. They’re also about service and support of community, and principals need training in social leadership. If a community functions well the children are more likely to be successful. If we hadn’t already had a strong relationship with our community, we wouldn’t have been able achieve what we have here.”
Further reading
- Ministry of Education directory with information and resources regarding preparing for and reacting to emergencies and traumatic incidents.
- Information about the Ministry’s Traumatic Incident teams and how to access support.
- A webinar and research summary on how teachers support children, whānau, and communities post-disaster from Professor Carol Mutch.
- An Ako feature on impacts of climate change weather disasters on schools in Dunedin and Northland.
- News stories from the Herald and Stuff about the devastating flooding in Puketapu.
