Ivy Collins Wiki, Biography
Ivy Collins, aged two-and-a-half, was being evacuated from the family home in Eskdale, in Hawke’s Bay New Zealand, when it was inundated with floodwaters this week. Her parents, Ella and Jack Collins woke at 3am on Tuesday to find their home quickly filling with water following torrential rains brought by Cyclone Gabrielle. A two-year-old girl has died after being ripped from her mum’s shoulders by powerful floodwaters, with her despairing family unable to prevent the toddler from disappearing beneath the waves.
The couple quickly grabbed their daughters, Ivy and her older sister Imogen, and were trying to leave when a giant wave swept into their one-storey home. The children’s uncle, Adam Collins, said the couple made a snap decision to take a child each and tried to climb onto their neighbour’s roof.
As they made their way through the pitch-black house another wave hit the family, knocking Ella, who is pregnant with her third child, off her feet. Mr Collins said his brother was able ot ‘scramble’ onto the house and put Imogen on the roof before then desperately trying to locate his youngest daughter.
‘He doesn’t know if he’s coming back… he finds his wife floating around and manages to get her back to safety… but by that time they’d lost the little one,’ he told the NZ Herald. ‘There’s nothing they could’ve done… she had her on her shoulders and she slipped out, her feet were taken out from underneath.’
Ivy’s frantic father spent several hours searching for his little girl in their water-logged house, calling out her name and climbing a nearby tree. The family and their neighbours were eventually found by search and rescue teams eight hours after their home first began filling with water.
They were all suffering hypothermia by the time they were found. Ivy’s body was located by crew members on Wednesday, not far from where she was ripped from her mother’s back by the powerful wave.
Ms Collins confirmed the two-year-old’s death on Facebook on Thursday, asking they were given time to ‘ground ourselves and navigate this impossible time’. ‘Our youngest daughter Ivy has drowned and died in the flash flooding, she was almost 2½, it was an unavoidable accident and she died very quickly,’ she wrote.
‘Search and Rescue have found her body, Jack and I have identified her. She is with the coroner before being taken to our chosen funeral home. Ms Collins said she her home, her treasured garden, and all the family’s belongings had been destroyed in a matter of hours.
‘The water was about 10cm from the ceiling in our house and rose extremely quickly and violently,’ she said. ‘We were unable to make it to higher ground due to a sudden torrent of water which almost drowned us all and took Ivy.’
She described her husband Jack as ‘a f***ing hero’ and said he was the only reason her family and their neighbours had survived. The post was quickly flooded with messages of support and sympathy. ‘Words cannot express how sorry we are to hear the devastating news of your little one Ivy and your home,’ one woman wrote.
‘I don’t know how many times I’ve read and re-read this in utter disbelief. I have no words,’ another said. ‘No words can express how sorry I am for the loss of your beautiful little girl, how incredibly cruel life can be,’ a third commented.
A fundraiser for the family has raised almost $70,000 in just 14 hours. The organiser wrote Ivy’s mother was due to give birth to her third child in August and that her husband’s work was currently ‘on hold’.
‘Ella and her family have no home to go back to, her beautiful gardens she had worked so lovingly in to create is gone, a land full of vegies and fruit to feed her family gone,’ they wrote. ‘Hugs, love and thoughts to you all, and please donate big or small it will all mean the world to them… such giving people who now deserve our help.’
Ms Collins said the family planned to hold a funeral for Ivy in Napier next week. At least five people have died in the wake of Cyclone Gabrielle, as fears remain for others seen swept away by floodwaters on New Zealand’s North Island. Prime Minister Chris Hipkins described the destruction caused by the cyclone as on the same level as the devastating Christchurch earthquake in 2011.
On Thursday morning, Mr Hipkins requested Australia’s help with disaster response as police and rescue crews worked tirelessly to locate missing people. At least 3,455 people were reported missing as of Thursday afternoon, with first responders to prioritise people with homes in isolated areas.
About 100,000 homes and businesses remain without power across the North Island as families desperately try to make contact with loved ones. Areas particularly devastated by the floods, including Hawke’s Bay, Gisborne and Bay of Plenty, were lashed with severe thunderstorms on Thursday afternoon.
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