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Wairoa in northern Hawke's Bay after the Wairoa River burst its banks. Photo: Hawke's Bay Civil Defence Emergency Management Group
Wairoa's mayor Craig Little reflects on the first anniversary of Cyclone Gabrielle.
The cyclone destroyed homes, businesses, bridges and severely damaged roads and farms in the district.
Power, internet and phone systems were out and the district was completely cut off from all directions.
Craig Little says Wairoa's scars remain raw, and rebuilding is challenging.
Over one hundred yellow-stickered homes remain with hundreds of people still displaced.
He says, per capita, Wairoa was the most impacted community of Tairawhiti and Hawke's Bay and the most isolated.