Vale St angel saved 50 people
Published: May 18, 2006
As property tenancy co-ordinator for Tauranga City Council, Vanessa Pringle managed 254 units in different parts of Tauranga. She knew every tenant by name.
“You remember the little details - if they have children and grandkids, what their favourite cake is.”
So on the morning of May 18 last year and ignoring the risk to her own safety, she drove to Vale St as driving rain forced water levels up in Otumoetai.
“I got there and was immediately up to my knees in water. I door knocked every single one of them and told them to pack their stuff. They were waiting for instructions.
Half of them don’t have anyone really.”
Urging residents to be quick and take only essentials such as pyjamas and medications, Ms Pringle also checked on residents at nearby Shelley St, coaxing nervous people out of their units.
Two fire trucks came after she dialled 111 but had to leave as reports came in of houses engulfed by mud, rain and landslides.
Ms Pringle helped some elderly residents - including one woman with a broken shoulder - dress and pack an overnight bag. She also organised hospice transport for a terminally ill cancer patient.
“It was the one day I left my cellphone at home too,” she remembers.
“I had a skirt and sneakers on, with a big yellow rain jacket with the sleeves rolled up because it was way too big. After half an hour the water was up to my bum.”
Now she is able to have a chuckle about the day with residents, including Marie Rigden, who pours endless cups of hot tea for visitors and serves up slabs of fresh pavlova or large butter-laden pikelets.
Ms Rigden cooks and bakes, helps with chores and checks up on the often lonely or unwell residents at the village. This time it was she herself who needed help.
Moving around with the aid of a walker on two “dicky” knees, she rang her son when the rain came and put things, including her precious photo albums, onto her bed.
“I banked my steps with towels and sheets. I really thought the water would come through. It was just all so sudden.”
Ms Rigden says the rising tide trapped residents in their units.
“It was like an ocean. It just kept on coming. It was really traumatic for some elderly. Vanessa kept them calm because they were really and truly in shock about leaving.”
Harold Jones agrees that the flooding and subsequent evacuation happened quickly. He was watching television when it occurred to him it had been raining for a long time.
“I opened the back door and there was a creek bed running through it. I opened the front door and it was the same,” he says.
“Vanessa banged on the door. I took my PJs, some private papers and went. It all happened so quick.”
Ms Pringle linked hands and arms with a fireman to lift residents including Ms Rigden to a front unit. Some were helped gently into the ute Ms Pringle was driving, while others huddled waiting for buses to transport them away.
She ferried residents to Baycourt or to the Hotel Armitage, where Ms Rigden says they “feasted like kings” on a smorgasbord meal and sang songs around a piano to keep spirits up.
Ms Pringle has since left the council but still visits with her friends in Vale St.
“Nobody else would have done anything. Those people were first in my mind … it was instinct and I’d do it again.”
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