Frustrations boiled over at a meeting of Eskdale residents on Sunday afternoon.
Six weeks on from the cyclone, they say the recovery effort has stalled and officials aren't keeping them informed.
They also wanted to discuss concerns about crime - but neither Police nor the Police Minister turned up.
Time passes but the scenes here remain the same. Cars are still buried in silt and some tractors are full of it.
Red-stickered homes are still the way the cyclone left them and it all feels like the recovery in Eskdale is at a standstill. Except for the few locals a month on still mucking in.
"I thought if we could just shut the gate, it would be one little thing making you feel like your place is your own again," Esk Valley resident Richard Kells said.
Kells knows it's going to be a long road but he said things could've been easier.
"There should've been a whole lot of coordination. Everybody went their own way. Every organisation just did their own thing," he told Newshub.
That frustration was echoed by the people who turned up at a community meeting at Eskdale School today.
"Why is it so bloody hard for someone to get the Army involved?" one person asked.
"I still have no Wi-Fi, no internet, no power, no communication. We are not being communicated with," another said.
The meeting was organised as a follow-up to one four weeks ago focused on crime. But today neither Police nor the Police Minister showed up.
"It's about the community being heard, and listened to and valued. By not fronting shows them what they think," meeting organiser Louise Parsons said.
Local MP and former Police Minister Stuart Nash did show up and made an admission.
"Perhaps in the very early stages Police didn't quite get this right," he told the meeting.
But the meeting quickly became a clash of political ideas and it left the Hawke's Bay Recovery Minister clearly unimpressed.
"Is anyone interested in hearing about the recovery?" he asked.
Nash even argued with the crowd.
"Deploying the Army sends a message that I don't think we want in our community... no we don't," he said.
"Deploying the Army sends a message that Police have lost control."
A heated exchange but when life still looks like this emotions run high.
