Much of the east coast of New Zealand’s North Island has been devastated by Cyclone Gabrielle, leaving communities without power, or internet and phone service. Luckily, with the help of the Ray White New Zealand corporate team, Ray White Gisborne was able to offer a free Starlink Wi-Fi connection to their community.
Ray White Gisborne Director Shelley Donaldson was stuck in Auckland when the cyclone hit after her flight home was cancelled four times. She arrived home on Wednesday afternoon, and by Thursday she understood the full magnitude of the disaster, and the affects of having no internet connection.
“Our office wasn’t affected at all and most of our team is fine,” Ms Donaldson said.
“We have some who have lost their home and vehicle, another who has lost sheds, storage containers full of personal items, and an orchard where the effects of the cyclone are probably yet to be revealed.
“This is huge. We understand the reality of it, which is heavy, and there is lots of work ahead of us, but there is such a silver lining in everything we are seeing around us with our community coming together.”
Ms Donaldson said Ray White New Zealand CEO Daniel Coulson had been in touch asking how he could help, and she managed to send a text asking for help accessing Starlink.
“There were two Starlink units on a flight by Friday morning and we had a connection by Saturday morning,” she said.
“Internet was scarce for six days, and after that it was still intermittent.
“We opened the connection to everyone in the community.
“Saturday morning we had the local radio station advising we had free Wi-Fi and at one point there were almost 130 parties connected to our system.
“We’ve had tourists stop by and say thank you as it was the first time their family had heard from them.
“We’ve had business owners thank us because they were able to pay their staff, and we’ve had others call in and ask us how they set up their own Starlink unit.”
The Ray White New Zealand corporate team also sent Starlinks to the Ray White Hawke’s Bay office to assist with internet connection.