Large parts of Gisborne have been left without internet, phone coverage and a damaged water supply following Cyclone Gabrielle.
At least one person has lost their life in the town — their body was found as flood waters receded in the town on the east coast.
In Te Karaka, a small town inland from Gisborne, 500 people evacuated at 5am Tuesday, heading for safety on higher ground.
For 27 hours they were stranded, with no communication and no idea whether anyone was coming to help.
Having run out of food, people risked their lives to drive back through floodwaters along State Highway 2 — getting food from their homes and returning to the hill to feed their families.
On Wednesday morning the highway was reopened and they were able to return to their homes, now ruined by the cyclone.
"Now don't get me wrong, we're happy we're still alive," one resident told 1News, "but, it's the devastation afterwards. We don't even know we're going to stay."
"We just watched it unfold in front of us. And watched our town basically get drowned," another said.
Alicia and Raymond, residents of Te Karaka, asked 1News reporter Jenny-May Clarkson to help get them on television — desperate for any way to let their whānau know they're OK.
"The water was swift. My house filled up within like five minutes," Alicia said.
"[The floodwaters] wiped us out, all of us."
Asked if he managed to save anything, Raymond said "no, it's all, yeah, totalled. Nothing. And our marae too".
"We're alive, even though all our homes are gone, and our marae... just to let our whānau know that we're OK, you know. We can start again," he said
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