Hawke’s Bay Today uses the power of print to help its cyclone-hit readers
Ideas Blog | 24 March 2024
Cyclone Gabrielle was expected to cause some damage to the Hawke’s Bay region of New Zealand. But when it arrived in early February 2023, it unleashed a torrent of river water, detritus, and silt so high that it smashed through bridges, stopbanks, and overtopped homes.
Eight people died in the region, hundreds were rescued from rooftops, thousands were displaced and initially deemed missing, and what was thought to have been hardy infrastructure was swept away.
The substation to Napier, the region’s largest city, was submerged and failed, cutting power. The main cables bringing Internet and mobile phone capability to the region were severed. Some radio stations lost their infrastructure and couldn’t broadcast.
Covering a disaster
Our team of 10 journalists and photographers were first on the scene of an unfolding disaster, documenting, interviewing, and writing in harrowing conditions.
Many knew they could not get back to their homes at night. One had to abandon a company car as floodwaters rose, trapping him in. Another of our team was rescued with her family from the hard-hit Esk Valley, losing her house and everything she owned.
Amid the chaos, we fired up the generator in the Napier office, its diesel fumes seeping through the walls as we worked. Without the ability to share news with our online audience (other than those outside the region), we decided we had to harness the power of print.
However, the state of the transport links in the region provided a distribution challenge. The main highway for our delivery trucks into Hawke’s Bay from the north was so badly damaged that it would be closed for a full month.
Even if we could get through that, every river bridge surrounding Napier was either swept away or closed.
Mobilising print operations
First, we negotiated a shift of our printing operation to a new press in Wairarapa to the south.
Then, we formed an agreement with Civil Defence to allow our trucks to cross one of the bridges into the city, which was not open to the public due to the risks it would face under heavy traffic.
The newspaper would go through at the same time as supplies like food and water, and we would make it available for free.
Given the conditions, we knew we couldn’t deliver to individual letterboxes, so we bulk-dropped the paper at convenience stores, supermarkets, and other typical distribution centres. Civil Defence would also get several bundles to place into helicopters it was using to deliver supplies to far-flung flood-hit parts of the region.
We partnered with councils across the region, offering them and Civil Defence a place for their public notices. Then we collated the latest news, images, and details we felt people would need to give them the best chance to survive around them.
When we finished, we placed a headline atop the front page that described how we were all feeling: Wiped Out.
Creating a lifeline
Ten thousand newspapers made it across the bridge into Napier on Friday, February 17, and 10,000 more copies were distributed around other parts of Hawke’s Bay.
People flocked to get a copy, driven by word of mouth. By the end of the day, there were no copies left.
The newspaper was profiled around New Zealand in reviews of the week’s events. Media commentator Gavin Ellis described it like this:
“In times of adversity, news organisations can rise to heights they never imagined. I am reminded of an event a quarter of a century ago when the Red River flooded, inundating the city of Grand Forks in North Dakota. Floodwater was followed by fire, which destroyed much of the downtown area including the newsroom and production plant of the Grand Forks Herald.
“There were hints of the Grand Forks Herald in the special editions produced by Chris Hyde and his team on Hawke’s Bay Today, distributed free of charge, that were packed with vital information, updates on the levels of damage, and uplifting stories of courage and stoicism.”
When power and Internet coverage returned over the next weeks and months, positive feedback poured in.
As our phone lines returned, we were inundated with thank you calls. Many noted they had no idea what had happened until they read our newspaper.
Reader Leanne Boyce summed up the sentiments of the community with her message to us on social media: “When technology fails, it’s the good old-fashioned newspaper that comes to the rescue to enable information to be provided. What a wonderful gesture to make it free.”