A Napier resident says she's lucky she didn't need a foot amputated after she broke two bones and needed medical attention during the city's recent floods.
Torrential rain on Monday forced dozens of people out of their homes, left hundreds without power, and prompted a local State of Emergency to be declared.
The storm left 67 homes as "not habitable", according to Fire and Emergency, and the event was described as "a one-in-250 year event".
As the rain poured on Monday, Maree Cameron and her son Bryce were moving stacks of wooden sheets out of her flooding garage when the pile suddenly came crashing down on her foot.
She said the pain was "immense".
"On a scale of one to 10, well it was way over that," she said in a statement from the Hawke's Bay District Health Board.
Bryce lifted the stack of wood enough to free Cameron's foot and they headed off to City Medical Napier.
"If it had been any later in the day we might not have got there, as it felt like the water was seeping into the car," she said.
A nurse assessed Cameron in the car and said it would be too dangerous to continue driving to Hawke's Bay Hospital due to the flooding, so a security guard came and carried her into the building.
Cameron was told she'd dislocated her ankle and broken both her tibia and fibula. She received pain relief but needed sedation to have her ankle put back into place.
Luckily, City Medical Napier medical director Dr Umang Patel was returning to work with his neighbour in an SUV and was able to sedate and put Cameron's ankle back into alignment.
Dr Patel said he was concerned about circulation to Cameron's foot.
"We essentially created a hospital ward to keep Mrs Cameron in overnight and monitored her pain relief, until an ambulance could safely take her to Hawke's Bay Hospital once the flooding had subsided the next morning," he said.
During this, Dr Patel's neighbour drove Cameron's daughter-in-law home and then returned to help transport patients to where they needed to go.
"It was heartening to see the community pulling together in a time of need," Dr Patel said.
Cameron, who is awaiting surgery on her ankle, said the care was "amazing".
"The nurses and Dr Patel - he's my hero. I'm very lucky I didn't lose my foot."
