Auckland floods: Mayor Wayne Brown wasn’t getting vital flood updates from Auckland Council because not on internal email list

Mayor Wayne Brown and his office have claimed they were not on the Auckland Council email distribution list to receive the vital updates being circulated to other council officials during Auckland’s fatal record-breaking downpour, the Weekend Herald can reveal.

Mayoral staff were understood to be “screaming” at their computers last Friday night, January 27, requesting and searching for internally sent email alerts and updates on the downpour and floods that killed four people.

Brown has been widely criticised for the slowness of his public response to the downpour last Friday evening and the eventual decision to place the Auckland region in a state of emergency after 10pm when flooding was already widespread across the city.

But the new mayor, who has been in the role since he was elected with a margin of 57,000 votes on October 8, said he was at his desk from 4pm in the afternoon on Friday.

A spokesperson for the mayor’s office said neither Brown nor the staff in his office were on an email list from Auckland Emergency Management (AEM) for updates on the storm, beginning on Thursday January 26.

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On the list were the other 20 members of Auckland Council’s governing body.

“Unfortunately, no. Neither the mayor nor his staff were on the AKGEOC (Auckland Civil Defence and Emergency Management Team) email distribution list and did not receive critical updates the day before or day of Auckland’s flooding on Friday. This has since been rectified,” a spokesperson from the mayor’s office told the Weekend Herald.

The paper has seen copies of emails from AEM duty officer Andrew Peteru from Thursday at 8.57pm, January 26, into Friday, January 27, giving briefings of the weather threats over the coming 24 hours.

An email on the Friday, at 5.58pm from AEM general manager Paul Amaral, begins: “Good evening Mayor Brown, Councillors and Local Board members”.

The email is labelled as “Importance: High” and says, “Auckland Emergency Management has activated in response to severe weather affecting Auckland right now.

“We are currently receiving information from emergency response agencies and will provide you with a more fulsome response in due course.”

The email proceeds to “urge” all elected officials of Auckland Council addressed in the email to “keep a close eye on your phones and inboxes for updates and alerts” and to follow AEM on Facebook and Twitter.

The mayor’s office has denied they received any of the emails.

Auckland mayor Wayne Brown at the West Harbour Fire Station fronting the media in relation to the worst flooding the Auckland region has ever experienced. Photo / Dean Purcell

When questioned by the Weekend Herald, the council’s director of governance and CCO partnerships, Phil Wilson, did not directly address the claims from the mayor’s office that they were not included in the emails.

“A line of communication was open between the council, Auckland Emergency Management, and the mayor’s office on Friday evening,” Wilson said.

“Over the course of the week, we have continued working with the mayor’s office to ensure he, and our other elected members, are kept informed during what is a continuously evolving situation. We are currently focused on the storm response and the eventual transition into recovery. A review into the emergency response, including communications, has been commissioned by the mayor and we will participate in that fully.”

In both a written statement and video address yesterday, Brown extended the Auckland state of emergency for a further seven days, but added it was likely to be lifted before that time.

Brown signed the declaration to initiate a seven-day state of emergency in Auckland at 9.27pm on January 27, but it was not publicly announced until after 10pm that night.

Yesterday was also the first time the mayor made an explicit apology for his slow public appearance and messaging that night.

“We need to acknowledge what hasn’t gone well. I dropped the ball on Friday, I was too slow to be seen and communications weren’t fast enough, including mine. I’m sorry for that,” Brown said.

The mayor announced they would be working all weekend to review the need for the emergency powers to stay on, but indicated the risk now in a “nutshell” was that “we are now so waterlogged that even a modest amount of rain can do a lot of damage”.

The priorities of the mayor came under further scrutiny after the Herald revealed he sent a WhatsApp text message to his tennis group - called The Grumpy Old Men - on Saturday night announcing he could not play tennis the next day.

“Anyhow I’ve got to deal with media drongos over the flooding tomorrow so sadly no tennis for me tomorrow Browny,” he messaged at 7.49pm on Saturday.

This text came after Brown had spent Saturday surveying the flood damage across West Auckland from a helicopter and doing a joint press conference with Prime Minister Chris Hipkins.

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The Herald asked Brown to comment on Tuesday, saying a story was to be written on the message thread. He responded by text message: “Please don’t.”

When it was explained that the story related to questions about the council’s communications with the public, he said: “That was a private conversation aimed at giving a reason to miss tennis. It in no way means I am not taking communication with all levels seriously.”

On Monday, Brown announced an independent review of all the official agencies that were involved in the flood response.

“The inquiry will look into all aspects, all people, myself included, plus the professionals, plus even the Government’s involvement in the response … lessons must be learned,” he said.

At that stage, Brown continued the line of defence that he followed the instructions of officials, arguing the leader of the event is the duty controller.

“It would be a brave person to overturn the duty controller until you have got a clear understanding of what is going on … my role is ensuring we get the best, most efficient use of the resources available and that is what I have been concentrating on,” he said.

This morning, February 4, a spokesperson for the mayor’s office said they will wait to see the outcome of the review into emergency management of Auckland’s flooding but they “cannot confirm the specific details or timing of the review at this stage”.