A Hawke's Bay man whose three cherished dogs died during Cyclone Gabrielle says he's consumed by guilt after trying desperately to save them.
Alastair Needes and his wife Ali's home on Hodgson Road in Pakowhai was quickly overwhelmed by rising water from the Ngaruroro River on Tuesday.
As the river inundated the property, Alastair rushed to do what he could to help others.
But by the time he got back to his ute where they were last seen alive, he was devastated to find they didn't make it.
The dog trainer had to say goodbye to his 'business partner' Duke, a yellow Labrador rehomed from a client, Nora, a six-year-old German Shorthaired Pointer, and Ziggy, a rehomed dog who was set to start work with the Department of Corrections next week.
Earlier in the day, Alastair had gone up to the bridge on his bike to check the water levels before realising the river was high.
He could see water in the distance coming toward him and went to check it out before seeing "a tsunami coming down" the paddock.
Alastair told 1News that people started to evacuate, and so he went to check on some neighbours.
He came across one resident with her mum who needed to go to hospital. With 10 horses on her property, he and the neighbour got the woman who needed medical attention into a car, and they stayed back to try and move the animals to safer ground.
1News reporter Kim Baker Wilson spoke from the town of Clive, halfway between Napier and Hastings. (Source: Breakfast)
But the water continued to rise, and Alastair could see his wife waving from their roof top - who had called 111.
He moved back to their property to try and move his dogs out of harm's way.
It was then he made the heartbreaking discovery one had already passed away in its kennel, so he put two others onto the top deck of his ute.
Alastair went back to help the horses and was able to get them into the back of the yard. There were also six sheep who he tried to move.
When he got back to his property, the water had almost swallowed his home, reaching as high as the top of the curtain rails inside.
Apple bins and horse floats made their way down the water as he waded back to his home where his wife was on the phone to emergency services.
Many are still without power, cellphone coverage is patchy, while there’s been tension at the petrol pumps. (Source: 1News)
As he waited and waited, he waved goodbye to his wife and said a prayer.
He told 1News: "I thought, 'I'm done'."
But help eventually came, with Alastair and Ali being airlifted to higher ground. His much-adored dogs, however, didn't make it.
He's now reliving his actions over and over, struggling to comprehend to gravity and speed of how fast the situation unravelled.
Alastair said: "I'm racked with guilt for letting my animals die. I'm absolutely devastated."
Kiwis have wrapped around Alastair and Ali, offering clothes, food, and somewhere to sleep.
Donations have also been made to a Give A Little page set-up to support the couple.
Alastair said accepting the help has been tough, but he is immensely thankful at this time.
He said: "I'm a proud person, it's really hard to take the support but I've decided they want to help and if they want to help."
Already he has made the painful journey home, where he found his dogs and already buried them.
"I feel like I massively let them down, I had to say sorry them. It was just so traumatic," he said.
Animal Evac's Tony Sutorius told Breakfast that hundreds of families had been assisted in the past month. (Source: Breakfast)
Once he was able to get hold of a phone, he made a moving post on Facebook.
He wrote: "I feel guilt-ridden that I lost my dogs. I helped others and could have made better decisions. But you have to live with the choices you make."
Alastair said he'd never lived through such a tough moment before having to say goodbye to his animals but equally is feeling for everyone affected during this time.
He said: "There are people and families way worse off than we are in this traumatic hideous experience and we are thinking of their plight.
"I plan now not to own a dog myself but to just foster and re-home dogs one at a time so that my dogs didn't die in vain but they go on to help others.
"We've just got to try and rebuild this devastation."
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