Newstalk ZB
WARNING: This article describes the death of a 2-year-old girl and may be upsetting for some readers. A mother who lost a 2-year-old daughter when Cyclone Gabrielle floods destroyed her “perfect” life says official warnings came far too late. “We would never have put our babies to bed that night if we had any understanding of what was coming,” Ella Collins told a coroner’s inquiry. “We would have left if we had received any warning or any evacuation recommendation.” Collins gave evidence yesterday at the long-running inquiry into the deaths of 19 people during the extreme weather in early 2023. Toddler Ivy Collins was lifted from Ella Collins’ shoulders after she lost her footing in the floodwaters as she, her husband Jack and 4-year-old daughter Imogen escaped their inundated home. Ella Collins had been woken about 4am on February 14, 2023, by the sound of water gushing, and stepped out of bed into ankle-deep water. Within 30 minutes, the water rose to chest height, she told the coroner. Collins said, looking back on old social media posts, she had been “boastfully happy”, with two children and one on the way, in their home at North Shore Rd, Whirinaki, north of the Esk River mouth in Hawke’s Bay. After the loss of Ivy, however, “our family is broken in ways I cannot articulate”. Night of flooding recalled Collins said that as the flooding worsened and started moving furniture around in the house, the parents told the girls they were “going on an adventure” to escape. They told them to hold on and not let go. The family waded out into the flood, heading for a two-storey dwelling two doors away, which they identified as the highest point nearby. Imogen,4, and Ivy Collins. Ivy,2, was swept away during Cyclone Gabrielle. Photo / supplied At first, the movement of water had been erratic and non-directional but, as Ella Collins, carrying Ivy, stepped across a driveway, she was hit by a “large torrent” with an overwhelming directional flow. “The change was abrupt and very unexpected and that sudden transition from rising non-directional flood water to an incredibly directional current caused us both to lose our footing,” she said. Ella could no longer touch the bottom. The flow pushed Ella under the water and lifted Ivy off her shoulders and “as I came out of the water I saw her floating face down away from me”. “I screamed to Jack, ‘I’ve lost Ivy’.” Jack pulled Ella to a hedge he was holding and she took Imogen from him before he dived in to try to rescue Ivy, screaming her name. “All this happened in a matter of seconds. It was incredible,” Ella Collins said. Jack Collins was immediately swept away in the torrent, before catching hold of a tree about 25m away. It was “nothing short of a miracle” that he managed to make his way back to Ella and Imogen, but he could not save Ivy. Ivy’s body was later found on a neighbouring property. Ella, Jack and Imogen were rescued from a neighbour’s house by helicopter, after Jack suffered a spinal injury kicking their way through onto the roof. “My husband broke his spine that night and has not been able to return to work,” Ella Collins said. He has also developed grand-mal seizures. Imogen, now 7, struggled daily with the loss of her sister and the “debilitating” trauma she lived through that night. Received warnings in previous flood Collins said the family had received a telephone warning from the council in the days before a lesser flood in 2018. She believed the same would happen if there was danger from the approaching Cyclone Gabrielle. “We were very much led to believe that if we were in danger we would be contacted.” She had kept an eye on council and Civil Defence media before Cyclone Gabrielle and most of the warnings were about conserving water, avoiding flushing toilets and sta...
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