Farmer helps rescue trapped drivers
Northland District
Headquarters
88 Cameron Street,
Whangarei
Wednesday July 9,
2014
A local Kawakawa farmer came to the rescue after two vehicles became trapped by flood waters during the storm that hit Northland last night.
About 6am this morning Senior Sergeant Peter Robinson came across two cars stranded by flood waters at the bottom of Lemon's Hill on State Highway 11, Kawakawa.
The drivers of both cars were trapped by the flood. At the same time local farmer Harry Shepherd was coming along in his tractor to move some cows.
Mr Robinson asked Mr Shepherd to help rescue the
trapped people.
Mr Robinson has then climbed into the
front end loader of the tractor and Mr Shepherd has driven
slowly towards the cars.
By this time the water was about
one metre deep and still rising. The current was moving
quite quickly, so urgent action was needed to get the people
out.
Mr Shepherd drove the tractor into the flood water
and Mr Robinson stood in the loader and pulled the people to
safety.
As he managed to get the female driver from her
car, the car floated off.
Mr Shepherd said the police
officer did really well.
"He was very careful and managed
to calm the lady down as he got near her. He convinced her
to get into the bucket with him, which wasn't easy. Her car
got taken away by the current just after we got her in. I
was glad to help out. It really made my day."
Acting Far North Area Commander Senior Sergeant Rhys Johnston said Mr Shepherd is a "hero farmer".
"The situation had the potential to become very serious"
Mr Shepherd, aged 74
years, has lived in the area for 51 years and this is the
second time he has come to the rescue during floods.
In
the 100-year flood of 2007 Mr Shepherd got up in the night
to rescue a group that had been washed away in their
vehicle.
The river had flooded all the paddocks and the car was stranded out in the middle. On that occasion the river was too deep for a tractor, so Mr Shepherd took his boat out and motored across to rescue the group one at a time.