Whilst we need to do everything in our power to keep the dream of curbing global warming to 1.5 degrees alive, almost every system in New Zealand needs to adapt to our new reality.
Pre-Covid, London-based reinsurer Lloyd’s was warning that Aotearoa has the second-highest annual expected cost from natural disasters, behind only Bangladesh.
Last year, two-thirds of Bangladesh’s land was impacted by floods and 25 million people were left homeless due to the flooding.
If we’re the second-most-at-risk, that means the “unprecedented” storm on Friday could just be the tip of the iceberg going forward.
Last Friday should be a wake-up call for every mayor, everyone working in infrastructure, every employer and every event organiser in this country. Knowing how you’ll handle extreme weather events should now be a core part of your job.
We just need to look at the Elton John concert to understand that isn’t the case now.
With 46,000 people descending on Mt Smart Stadium, trains cancelled and most people on buses, in cars or on foot, it was the perfect storm for a disastrous evening.
I’m surprised not more has been written about what concert-goers experienced.
As the rain set in, I awaited a decision about whether the concert would go ahead. We waited until the last minute we could to leave, but with no communication, we joined the masses to descend on Mt Smart, assuming they had a plan in place.
On the way to the concert, we saw parents carrying young children towards Mt Smart, we saw people slipping over and we saw others shivering in wet clothes. It was a mess.
Then, just as we were getting out of the car, a friend called to say the stadium was being evacuated and the concert was cancelled.
We were the lucky ones, it turns out.
As a concert-goer, unless you were watching the Twitter feed, you had no idea of knowing it had just been cancelled. We received no notification and no information about what had happened.
In fact, Aucklanders received no civil defence emergency text alerts on Friday night. If our wettest day on record, with people travelling across the city before a long weekend, isn’t enough to trigger that system at pace, I don’t know what is.
Our drive home was dangerous. We’ve all seen the photos and heard the stories by now.
It was a horrible situation to be in, and it’s only good fortune for the organisers that no concert-goers were killed travelling to or from the stadium.
How was a decision to cancel not made sooner? Who is responsible for the safe running of a major public event in our largest city? The promoters and organisers? The venue? The CEO of Auckland Council? Civil Defence? When does the mayor step in to say enough is enough and pull the plug?
No one took any action until far too late, but all of the above should have had the ability to pull the plug on a major event such as this. Ultimately, they all share responsibility for what was one of the most reckless decisions on the day.
While this storm has been deemed “unprecedented” again and again by our mayor, it is hard to understand how we weren’t better prepared for this. The “unprecedented” needs to become the baseline of what we prepare for moving forward.
We live in Tāmaki Makaurau, surrounded by volcanoes and water, and filled with waterways. Our risk management systems should be world class because we are at significant risk of major climate-related events.
To do this, we require strong leadership and vision from the top. We look to our city’s leaders to take initiative and drive this as a key priority.
When things go wrong, people out of their depth often feel it is about blame, but it’s actually about accountability. We need to understand exactly what went wrong on Friday night.
We need to understand what happened and create a better plan for the future. Because if we don’t figure out the learnings now, we’re going to learn harsh lessons on a much bigger scale in years to come.
Simply put, if you’re not up for dealing with “unprecedented” events, now is the time to contemplate whether the role is really for you.
As for those media “drongos” the mayor referred to in his message, one would hope more respect is provided to those who keep our citizens in the know about what is really going on in this city.
- Cecilia Robinson is founder and co-CEO of Tend.
