Cyclone Gabrielle inquest: What went wrong and what must change? - The Front Page

It’s been more than two years since Cyclone Gabrielle and the Auckland Anniversary Weekend floods.

A three-week-long inquest has begun in Hastings District Court, examining how prepared the region was for the cyclone, how warnings were issued, and the emergency response.

In August, in the first phase of the inquiry, the response to the Auckland Anniversary weekend floods, which began on January 27, 2023, was examined. It revealed more about what officials and emergency services discussed - and what led to a local state of emergency being declared for the first time.

Open Justice reporter Ric Stevens told The Front Page that the coronial inquest originally was meant to look into the deaths of 18 people during both the Auckland Anniversary floods and Cyclone Gabrielle, but another death has since been added.

“Joseph Ahuriri went missing in his car on the night of the cyclone, and it’s been a big local mystery about what happened to him. There have been a number of searches for him since, both on land and sea.

“What happened to him had been perplexing, and police said they initially didn’t think that his apparent death was linked to the cyclone. But now that they have referred it to the coroner, she has decided to include it in this inquiry,” he said.

Coroner Erin Woolley announced last year she was conducting a coronial inquiry into the weather-related fatalities, including those of three men who died in the following months and whose deaths may have been self-inflicted.

The youngest of the people included in Coroner Woolley’s inquiry is toddler Ivy Collins, whose family home in Eskdale was flooded in the cyclone. The oldest is Helen Street, 86, who died in Napier and was dependent on supplied oxygen.

Fourteen of the fatalities were men. In addition to 2-year-old Ivy, four women died.

Stevens said the coroner is looking at the circumstances of individual deaths as well as wider questions.

“Things like the flooding risks that places like Eskdale, Te Karaka, and Puketapu, and what could have been done better. Whether, in fact, planning should allow for houses to be built in flood-prone areas, and those sorts of issues,” he said.

Listen to the full episode to hear more about:

• Who will be heard from throughout the inquiry
• What lessons could be learned for future responses
• Issues that will be examined more closely.

The Front Page is a daily news podcast from the New Zealand Herald, available to listen to every weekday from 5am. The podcast is presented by Chelsea Daniels, an Auckland-based journalist with a background in world news and crime/justice reporting who joined NZME in 2016.

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