Working through disaster
“We haven’t seen anything like this before,” says Paul Brown, group general manager of Bayswater Vehicles.
The company, which has dealerships in Napier, Hastings and Manawatu, is pulling out all the stops to get its businesses up and running in the wake of Cyclone Gabrielle.
Hawke’s Bay has been one of the country’s worst-affected regions with Brown outlining the main issues moving forward as being infrastructure, roading and power.
“Napier is offline at the moment, but Hastings is up and running and we are endeavouring to service customers over there,” he told Autofile Online on February 17.
“One of the problems has been communications and we can only follow what has been going on via the internet. It was only yesterday that all our cellphones became operational.”
In Napier, Bayswater Vehicles has three dealerships – for Hyundai and Isuzu, Suzuki and Subaru, and Jaguar, Land Rover and Volvo. Then there’s Hyundai, Isuzu and Subaru – and Hawke’s Bay BMW – in Hastings, as well as Manawatu BMW.
“We are conducting pre-safety checks on people’s vehicles that have been exposed to water,” adds Brown. “And we’re expecting reasonable demand as people look to replace their vehicles.”
There is positive news as well. “We are all good, and our staff are safe and well, although one of the team has suffered serious damage to their property.”
The Motor Trade Association, meanwhile, is still trying to contact many of its members who may be affected by the cyclone, but has been facing difficulties in doing so.
Tony Everett, sector manager – dealers, says this is because communications have been down. He adds a lot of businesses may be closed due to flooding issues and staff being unable to get into work.
Cyclone Gabrielle, which lashed the country this week, has left at least seven people dead and has been labelled by Prime Minister Chris Hipkins as the worst storm to hit New Zealand this century.
The extreme weather system has caused floods and landslides in large parts of the North Island, with Hawke’s Bay, Northland, Auckland and the East Coast bearing the brunt of the damage, and forced thousands of people to evacuate their homes.
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