An Eskdale house where a family were rescued from their ceiling cavity. Photo / Alexa Cook, RNZ
By Alexa Cook of RNZ
A witness at the inquest into 13 deaths linked to Cyclone Gabrielle in Hawke’s Bay has warned the coroner that more people will be harmed unless local councils set alert levels for rivers, so everyone knows when an evacuation is needed.
The second phase of the coronial inquiry ended on Friday at the Hastings District Court, where Coroner Erin Woolley is looking at how and why hundreds of people were not evacuated during the 2023 weather event.
Daniel Gale’s family owns the Eskdale Holiday Park, where an early warning system has been in place for more than 30 years.
Because of that alert system, he evacuated the campground more than 24 hours before the valley filled with raging floodwaters and killed two people.
More than 30 witnesses were giving evidence in this part of the inquest and Gale was the first person not employed by a local council, MetService or emergency services during the cyclone to take the stand.
He told the coroner no one was any safer today than they were during Cyclone Gabrielle, because local authorities still had not set “trigger levels” for Hawke’s Bay’s rivers, where if the water reaches a certain point, people are evacuated.
“Without a plan, everyone is going to fail again and again and someone else will be harmed,” Gale said.
Coroner Woolley asked: “So a plan for those in the control room, as such, setting out to them what river levels mean, but also for residents?”
“Yes,” Gale replied. “I’d go as far as saying it needs to be automated to a certain point – ‘at this level, you do this’. Then there is no human error.”
Gale said his own early warning system had been tested many times by varying sized floods and it had never failed to work.
The system has a float valve, which measured the river’s level and set off an alarm in his home when the Esk River reached 3.6m high, with another alarm sounded at 4.6m.
“People shouldn’t be caught out by a flood,” Gale said. “It takes hours for it to flood, but no one can do anything about it if they don’t have a trigger point.”
He addressed the coroner directly, voicing concern about future flood risks, saying nothing had changed since the deadly cyclone, when hundreds of people weren’t evacuated in time.
“I don’t think anyone in Hawke’s Bay is any safer in a Gabrielle event than before, because you can’t get harmed in a flood if you’re not in it – just like you can’t get harmed in a car crash if you don’t hop in a car,” Gale said.
A report after the 2018 Eskdale flood recommended a text alert system for residents and the idea had been discussed several times throughout the inquest.
“Pretty much everyone agreed that that was a good idea,” Gale said.
He told the court there was an expectation the regional council could implement such a system, but that still hadn’t happened.
Gale highlighted the alert systems used in the United States in Florida, where millions of people were evacuated before major storms.
Coroner Woolley nodded, telling him she had experienced that system first-hand.
“In the States, you get sent messages based on your location on Google Maps. I recently was in the States and got an alert – I think they have good systems.
“It’s probably a worthwhile thing to think about.”
Woolley thanked Gale for giving evidence.
“It’s very valuable for me to hear from people who were on the ground, so thank you very much.”
During the coronial inquiry, the court has heard from local council and civil defence staff.
Hawke’s Bay Regional Council hydrologist Craig Goodier was the flood forecaster during the cyclone and in his evidence said it was “unlikely” they could have forecast the magnitude of flooding.
However, Gale said it was clear the flooding would be as bad as in 2018, when about 90 properties were inundated.
When Gale saw the Esk River rising on Monday, February 13 and an updated MetService forecast of 250-350mm rainfall in the ranges, he knew from past experience the valley would flood up to the railway line, as it had seven years previously.
At about 6.30pm, the second alarm went off on his early warning system, telling him the river had reached 4.6m.
“I was getting frustrated that no action had been taken by anybody and yet here we are, watching a cyclone coming ... it was so obvious what was coming,” he said.
Gale said he rang and texted Esk Valley residents he knew could be in harm’s way and then contacted Civil Defence to ensure it was aware of the flood risk.
“I’m thinking, ‘Why is nobody coming out and telling these people?’ I’m ringing these people and they haven’t heard anything, so I rang Civil Defence on the radio, as I knew I’d get straight to them.
“I’m trying to say, ‘Hey, the river is really cranking up now’. I said, ‘The river is rising really rapidly’ and the single response was, ‘We’ll pass it on’.”
He then logged into Facebook, planning to post a warning message in his local community group, but saw a social media post from Hawke’s Bay Civil Defence saying they were monitoring the situation and there was no need to evacuate.
“I saw that and thought, ‘Oh well, these guys are doing their job, they’re going to tell people to leave’, and as we know, they didn’t.”
Gale’s voice shook as he talked about how hard it was reflecting back on his decision not to post his own evacuation warning in the community Facebook group.
“Had I told our community, perhaps it would have changed things.”
The coronial inquest will continue in March next year, with more than 15 witnesses still to give evidence.