Five police officers awarded for their bravery during Cyclone Gabrielle have opened up about their experiences rescuing people from the floodwaters.
The officers were honoured today at the Police Association's bravery awards.
The awards are for two separate events during the large police rescue operation in Hastings during Cyclone Gabrielle on February 14.
Detective Sergeant Heath Jones and Detective Constable Jaime Stewart both rescued a mother, two children, and an elderly couple from rising flood waters.
"The current, and the strength of it, was possibly the scariest," Jones said.
The two officers rescued the family who were trapped on their shed roof, and then saved an exhausted elderly couple trying to walk in fast-flowing waters contaminated with debris and dead sheep.
"It was just a real moment of 'OK, this is serious, something bad could happen, but we're here now, just got to keep going forward'," Stewart said.
Six people were also saved by Constables Patrick Noiseux, Mark Bancroft and Kurtis Maney who all nearly drowned as they worked to get people up into trees until help arrived.
But because the helicopters, jetboats and IRBs could not reach them in the raging water, the rescue was difficult.
"Then a truck showed up with a digger on the back, that's what I needed. If it wasn't for that digger, that's a very different story altogether," Noiseux said.
They lifted each person to safety in the bucket of the digger.
"There was some incredible bravery shown through the floods response, and this was right at the top end of that," Police Commissioner Andrew Coster said.
It is the first time the Police Association has had five awardees at any one ceremony.
"These events are clear examples of how police officers put the lives of others ahead of the risks to themselves and their own whānau and they can be incredibly proud of how they responded to this tragic event," Police Association president Chris Cahill said.
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