Mum Dinah had to fight to protect her family
Dinah Ifopo, 47, Napier, NZ
As I snuggled up to my fiancé, Matty, then 46, torrential rain lashed our bedroom windows.
This is getting serious, I thought.
It was February 2023, and severe Tropical Cyclone Gabrielle had been battering New Zealand for days. Our hometown of Napier, on the North Island, was no exception.
Living in between two rivers, we’d get a bit of flooding from time to time.
When we woke the next day, the rain had eased a little. Outside the front yard looked soggy, but thankfully it wasn’t flooded.
