CYCLONE GABRIELLE HEROES AND HEROINES

When the MetService reports that few weather events are as terrifying or as powerful as a tropical cyclone, you take them seriously. Diabetes New Zealand Hawke's Bay Youth Coordinator Rach McQuade and pilot Bret Lucas share how their heroic work in the Hawke's Bay aftermath unfolded. As told to Ashlee Sturme and Rowena Fry.

It wasn’t labelled a Severe Tropical Cyclone for nothing. In February, Gabrielle devastated the east coast of Aotearoa New Zealand from Northland down to Wairoa. Over the five days, there were 11 fatalities and an estimated 10,000 people displaced, and, since then, insurance claims have passed $1 billion.

THE STORM

On the night of 13 February, while the incoming weather was sounding like a helicopter coming in to land, Taradale mum-ofthree Rach McQuade was quietly wondering how the next delivery of sensors for her daughter, Maddison, who has type 1 diabetes, would get through if the weather was as destructive as it was predicted to be.

Unable to sleep until 3am, she watched trees moving from where they had originally been growing in the neighbour’s property to her own backyard. The following morning, Rach played phone tag with her husband, who was away training with Fire and Emergency in Nelson. Cell phone coverage was sporadic, and the couple shared calls where he could hear her but she couldn’t hear him. At one point, she told him that the neighbours had received an alert to evacuate. He called her back and told her that the stop banks were ready to burst – they needed to pack their bags and leave.

UNFOLDING DEVASTATION

Hunkered down with her children at her mother’s house, Rach listened to the police scanner in horror. People were in boats, and helicopters were plucking people from rooftops. Rach and her children returned home that afternoon with trepidation, unsure of what would greet them. They were grateful to find their home dry, although they would be without power over the following week.

Rach has been running a Facebook support group in Hawke's Bay for the last eight years. Networking with others in the area, upskilling and connecting, supporting wherever she could, she was in the process of getting Hawke's Bay Youth up and running. As the magnitude of the cyclone damage began to unfold, Rach imagined the chaos for the local diabetes community and started to think about how she could help.

With roads wiped out, she realised couriers would struggle to get diabetes supplies through. She considered herself well prepared and had adopted a routine of keeping her power banks charged, but without power she had to rely on generators at work and her car when she was driving to top up her phone and her daughter’s insulin pump. It was clear that others were going to struggle too.

Major damage to vineyards and orchards in Eskdale, Napier from Cyclone Gabrielle.

‘WHAT CAN WE DO?’

As the rest of the country saw the devastation reported, Rach got a message from former president of Diabetes Youth, Jacqui Van Blerk, asking what those in Auckland could do to help.

She racked her brain. ‘At this stage, we just need our sensors, but what about everyone else? Who had lost medical tech in the floods?’ It was clear they needed to find out what was needed.

A few days later, the group chat had expanded to include Lena Fendley from Tauranga Diabetes Youth and Sianne Chapman from Auckland. Across the country, Rach’s network was asking, what can we do? Rach decided to collect devices, insulin, and other supplies and distribute them to those who needed them, with support from her contacts. She popped a Facebook post on the DNZ page, and quickly her messages blew up. The magic began.

‘Calling out to everyone in the Hawke's Bay!!!! Rach McQuade is on the ground and collating diabetes devices, insulin, and treatments for those that urgently need them. If you are running low on any of the above and can’t access your supplies, please send us your name, contact phone number and tell us what you need and someone will be in touch with you as soon as possible.’

Rach said that MediRay and NZMS Diabetes came on board first. She started compiling lists of patients names in the Hawkes Bay, and then communicating those needs to her network.

Auckland, Tauranga, and Rotorua Diabetes NZ branches came together to donate juice boxes, pump supplies, test kits, and patches to go over sensors. ‘All sorts. Alcohol wipes. You name it. They were all rallying together,’ Rach says. Members of the public unaffected by diabetes also offered donations.

Bret Lucas (left) with his Beechcraft Bonanza and fellow pilot Blair Huston with his Cessna 182.

A HUMBLE TAXI DRIVER

With all of Hawke’s Bay’s major roads blocked, damaged, or closed, flight was the only way in. So when the phone of Kerikeri local Bret Lucas rang with a friend of Rach’s asking him if he could take supplies down to the Hawke's Bay, he agreed without hesitation. Owning a four-seater plane, he was immediately onboard with the idea. ‘I thought, this is cool, it gives me purpose. I like flying for a purpose.’

It turned out there was a lot of supplies, so Bret called in his mate, and fellow pilot, Blair Huston from Fortis Travel, and together they started making preparation and gaining airport clearances.

The two planes left Kerikeri and headed down the North Island, stopping to pick up supplies in Auckland before landing in Napier and then Hastings. For those in the Hawke’s Bay, it was a flight that changed their lives. For Bret, it was just a day where he could help. ‘I was just the taxi driver, nothing more.’

Bret, who has type 1, and is known as @Flight1diabetic on Instagram, lost his commercial pilot license when he was 22 after being diagnosed. Now semiretired, he has worked as a flight planner for Air NZ for the last 27 years, a role that involves all the technicalities of getting a plane from A to B. ‘We’ll build a “flexi track”, which picks up the best winds. We’ll work out how much gas they need so they don’t drop out of the sky and work out en route alternates, so if the engines have a problem they know where they’re going to go.’ When nature dishes out wind, volcanoes and cyclones, they are not all the same, nor predictable.

Bret is on a mix of insulin types, and his management of the condition has allowed him to keep flying privately. He gets frustrated by the psychological effect of trying to manage diabetes without a CGM. ‘It’s traumatic,’ he says bluntly. He doesn’t understand why the government isn’t helping, as to him it is such an easy fix.

Bret Lucas and his Beechcraft Bonanza.

Rachel's daughter Maddison and Bret being interviewed by NewsHub.

DISTRIBUTION

Back in the Hawkes Bay, Rachel was coordinating the logistics of a massive operation. ‘It was insane.’ It took three days to determine the needs, find the equipment, and get it all ready to pick up.

‘Our volunteers were sending us pix and vids, showing off these pilots as they were taking off from the airports up north, and landing. Saying, ‘Hey they’ve arrived, they’re on their way.’ It was just amazing.’

Sorting supplies to be donated around Hawke's Bay.

Boxes of much-needed diabetes supplies ready to wing their way from Auckland to Hastings.

USAR (Urban Search And Rescue) picked up the supplies from the airport and took them to Rach’s garage in Taradale and she was on hand to organise it. The next challenge was how to get everything hand delivered in a region that had damaged infrastructure, washed out bridges, houses under water, and people in evacuation centres. Her ever-expanding support network helped distribute supplies across the Bay. They sighted drivers licences to ensure recipients were who they said they were.

They sighted drivers licences to ensure recipients were who they said they were.

There were some heart-breaking stories, she says. One recipient had lost everything in the flood. ‘We made up a care package of a month’s worth of sensors, a new scanner, juice boxes, two new test kits, and medical tape to go over the sensor.

‘Another picked up a sensor who was in a tight financial situation and had been in a car accident due to a very severe low. It just so happened a nurse was following her and noticed her weaving on the road. She went off the road but wasn’t injured, not knowing how a low could affect her driving. She has found the sensors are absolutely life-changing and can’t live without them now.’

‘We met a young isolated student, and she received a package thanks to Dexcom. Glucose, juice boxes, medical tape, test kits, ketone strips. She was very grateful and turned up a week later and brought us her some little handmade melting moments, stamped with “thank you” on them.’ It wasn’t the first time that Rach had cried.

‘People have lost jobs and houses. It’s real. They can’t go back to their work because it’s been flooded or flattened.

‘In Taradale, we look pretty normal, apart from silt on the road. We recently went out to Eskdale, and parts of it are unrecognisable.

Like a war zone. Cars upside down. Houses look they’re sinking in mud. It’s heart breaking.’

MOVING FORWARD

Rach says this disaster highlights just how much the diabetes community relies on regular supplies. ‘Yes, we could’ve gone back to finger pricking. Did we want to? No.’

Rach says she had a conversation with her local pharmacist who had seen the news clip of Maddison, Bret, and Rach on TV. ‘He had said, ‘You do realise we have a warehouse here that supplies our medical supplies?’ Rach didn’t know this but explained to him that this local warehouse didn’t stock CGMs.

All these goods are only stocked in, and shipped out of, Auckland. So, with all the main roads connecting Napier and Hastings closed to the general public, supply trucks were now having to come via Palmerston North, and that was adding almost another three hours to the journey.

She says, without diabetes even coming into play, public health for everyone was compromised due to silt and contaminated water. There was potential food poisoning if people weren’t careful with what they were eating as fridges and freezers had no power. There was heightened stress. Not only houses but cars were flooded. ‘Not being able to drive to get help shows how much we rely on this medical tech that needs to be funded.

‘I think with what has happened as a diabetes community, nationwide, we need a better plan, because these weather events are going to keep happening.’

Rach says she also couldn’t have achieved her reach without all of the support of the many volunteers.