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Thank you so much for your donation.
Because of you, we will be prepared when the next emergency threatens a community in New Zealand. Generous people like you are the reason we can be there when it matters most.
We know it’s not a question of if, but when the next disaster will strike. Your donation will help ensure that our trucks are full of the essentials like stretchers, blankets and first aid kits.
Your gift will also make sure that our teams are fully trained, equipped and ready to support people in their darkest moments.
Whether it’s a cyclone, an earthquake or flood that threatens our communities next, today you have made sure that, together, we will stand with those affected when they need us most.
When disaster strikes, everything can change in a matter of hours. Homes can be lost. Communities cut off. Your support can help make sure that people in crisis are not facing their darkest moments alone.
It's been three years since the North Island Severe Weather Events that included Cyclone Gabrielle and brought terrible devastation to New Zealand. Fifteen people lost their lives, thousands of homes were destroyed, and whole communities in Hawke’s Bay, Tairāwhiti, Auckland, Northland and beyond were devastated.
For Mercia Paaymans and her family, Cyclone Gabrielle changed everything in a matter of hours.
So we'd woken up on that morning of Gabrielle and we thought we'd got, we thought we were OK. There was water, there was lots of pooling water around the place, but we thought we'd got, we thought we were good and had family ringing saying are you OK?
We're going.
Yeah, we're OK.
We're OK.
It's really wet, but we're OK.
By this time the Waimate stream behind us was starting to, was starting to flood and coming across, but it was, it was small.
It was only, you know, it was sort of like this high.
That was the time when our son comes screaming down the driveway.
He's, he was shouting at us.
We've got to go, we've got to go, we've got to go now.
And it was a case of literally get in the car and we, and we had the cat in a cat cage.
And we, I left the stuff that I'd organised on the bed and we just got in the car and my son and his wife and their baby were in their four-wheel drive and they got their dog in there and they sort of headed up the driveway, which, and the water was coming up over the bonnet at that point.
We got up onto the on the road and we followed them and it was sort of raining and it was misty and it was, and the comms had gone by then.
We had communication up to about then and that was it it'd just gone.
And we.
Where do you go?
It was, Yeah, it was scary.
It was.
Yeah.
And it's very, It was from being everything fine to everything turning to chaos was quick and it was frightening.
And it was frightening.
Yeah, yeah.
You can see all the fences, all that fence that was full of apples and debris and then you opened into the houses and they would just look like a tornado had come through.
Everything had moved the, the water came through the cat door and just moved it just, it lifted everything, swirled it all round and dumped it again.
And it was just, there was silt everywhere.
It was up over the over the kitchen benches.
It was in the drawers that you'd open the drawers.
It was all through the clothes.
It was everything below 1.8.
Yeah, it was, yeah, everything.
It was, it was just also, I guess, I suppose we're walking around in shock and but you don't register it as shock and you just, oh, it was just everything was, was wet and sticky and yeah, all, all like the furniture and yeah, it was just, yeah, it was, it was awful.
I can remember them coming with their vehicle parked out on the road and we met them on the driveway.
It was yeah.
It was like, oh, someone cares.
Someone cares, Someone actually cares.
And we hadn't seen that.
It was just that that very reassurance that you were not alone because we felt very isolated here on our own.
Even at night, there was there was no other lights.
Everything was, it was just very, the whole valley was empty.
It was just very reassuring.
We realised we weren't alone because you felt very, very isolated.
Yeah.
It was godsend and they offered to come in and talk to us and, tell so we could tell our story.
But we, the fact that I guess the best thing we got was the fact that they gave us, they empowered us to find more assistance that was available
but we just didn't know how to get it.
It was, it was a godsend, to be honest.
People who seem to care, someone actually cares.
And it was that's, you know, under stress situation.
It was.
Yeah, I'm pretty sure we hugged them.
I'm pretty sure we were so happy to see them.
Yeah, there was a lot of hugging.
On the night the cyclone hit, Mercia and her husband believed they had avoided the worst. By the next day, rivers were rising and the roar of water was growing louder. Their son ran down the driveway, desperate for them to leave immediately. Mercia thought they would be gone for a few hours. That they would return home. That everything would be fine.
It wasn’t.
When they returned the next day, their home was unrecognisable. Mud covered everything. Furniture, clothes and food were ruined. They had nothing to eat and no clean clothes. As they tried to leave again and their ute struggled to start, the enormity of it all became too much.
“I was just howling, I just couldn't cope with things, and I cried…the enormity of everything just hit me.”
And then, New Zealand Red Cross arrived.
“It felt like someone actually cared. That someone gave a damn.”
Our teams told Mercia and her family where and how to access clean water, food, clothing and health advice – even dog food. Just as importantly, the visit from New Zealand Red Cross gave them reassurance that they were not alone. When people face their darkest moments, that human connection can mean everything.
Our communities are at risk from storms, cyclones, floods, earthquakes and other life-threatening events. It’s not a question of if the next disaster will happen, but when – and it could be in your community.
This Annual Appeal we need you to help make sure we are ready before that moment comes while continuing to support those who rely on our humanitarian programmes every day. With your support, our teams can be trained, our trucks stocked, and help can reach people when they need it most.
UPDATE: Donate today before 31 March and double your impact! Now the first $80,000 raised in our Annual Appeal will be matched by generous supporters – making your gift go even further.
Finally, don’t forget that when you make a donation of over $5.00, you could claim 33.33% back from IRD!
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