HELPING HANDS: 'WE HAD TO WORK REALLY QUICKLY'

After losing her own home, Amy Bowkett is determined to make sure others get the aid they need

- Amy Prebble, Kelly Bertrand, Sophie Neville

Hawke’s Bay mum-of-two Amy Bowkett is still overwhelmed by the generosity and kindness of her Puketapu neighbours in the aftermath of Cyclone Gabrielle.

Amy, 44, her husband Richard, 50, and their nine-year-old daughter Celia took refuge at their neighbours Nick and Sheena McCann’s house when their home in the 39 Degrees South subdivision was lifted off its foundations by flood waters.

“We’d been nearly flooded in the past, so we put some things up high and went to our neighbours to make sure our daughter was safe,” Amy tells Woman’s Day from her mother’s home in Napier. “At that stage, we didn’t know about the Tūtaekuri River that was about to break at the banks.