‘Significant gains’ in 12 months for emergency management

Ben Green, Tairāwhiti Civil Defence and Emergency Management group manager

“We only need one to slip through.”

That from group manager Ben Green, speaking at this week’s Tairāwhiti Civil Defence and Emergency Management group meeting.

Mr Green said the thunderstorms and other bad weather of early 2024 were “warning signals”.

There had been 15 cyclones at the end of last year out of the northern Pacific, with Australia bearing the brunt of most of them.

None had moved on in the direction of the North Island.

In his written report to the meeting, Mr Green said the warnings had not affected the region. “However, given the current climatic conditions, these weather events can produce intense rainfall.

“As such, public sentiment is  of concern and caution when reacting to issued weather warnings.”

With the onset of an El Nino weather cycle for 2024, the anticipated dry/drought conditions had not transpired as yet, given rain has been frequent over the past weeks.

It was normal for New Zealand to experience stronger or more frequent winds from the west in summer, leading to an elevated risk of drier-than-normal conditions in East Coast areas, and more rain than normal in the west.

“However, weather variations have not seen these play out to full effect as yet.”

Mr Green said this week — 12 months after Cyclone Gabrielle — was a time of reflection and to think about reconfiguring Civil Defence.

“We apply three things — what happened, what could have happened and what should have happened.”

Civil Defence personnel “would never say we have achieved a state of perfection”, he said.

At the same time, he said he was satisfied  with the state of Civil Defence in Tairāwhiti.

There had been significant gains such as an emergency centre, while many new volunteer Civil Defence groups had emerged.

Mr Green said there had been 17 significant weather events in Tairāwhiti since 2017, causing a cumulative effect.

He did not envy council staff with water pipelines running 40 kilometres “into pretty tenuous country”.

There were similar issues with roading.

Mr Green said the significance of Cyclone Gabrielle was that it was the third time in New Zealand history that a national state of emergency had been declared. (The other two were the Christchurch earthquake and Covid-19 pandemic.)

When Civil Defence was always in response mode, the downside was the (lesser) ability to train.

The priority was on outreach activity in the form of training activities — which were now well under way — working with existing partners, having more people knowing about Civil Defence and focusing on community support with the likes of iwi and hapū.