Cyclone Gabrielle: The emergency resilience pods that aided Wairoa in hour of need

The team from EPOD (from left): Lizzie McPhail, Guy McPhail and Jon Viljoen. They hope to see their containers used by community resilience hubs. Photo / Warren Buckland

Rangi Manuel insists “it was just luck, really”.

All the same, the general manager of Te Whare Maire O Tapuwae installed the last of 21 emergency resilience container pods across Wairoa two days before Cyclone Gabrielle hit.

The pods were supplied by Napier company EPOD, run by Lizzie and Guy McPhail.

The McPhails operate sports apparel company Kooga, but pivoted into resilience supplies during Covid.

That’s how Manuel, whose organisation is a Whānau Ora entity, first formed a relationship with the couple, after sourcing personal protective equipment and emergency supplies for Covid-isolating Wairoa residents from the McPhails.

Te Puni Kokiri was offering funding for disaster resilience, so once Manuel saw January’s floods in Auckland, he got in touch with EPOD.

A tsunami was the thing he feared most, not necessarily a cyclone of the severity of Gabrielle.

“I read in the paper on the Thursday that the cyclone was coming and we had most of the containers in place by then,” Manuel said.

“However, there were four that were still to be delivered from the Bay. They delivered the last ones on the Sunday night.

“It was just luck, really.”

Manuel distributed some at Māhia, others at Nuhaka, Wairoa hospital, marae and areas of high ground in the town itself. The rest were delivered by chopper to more isolated communities and rural areas.

“We were just hoping they would take care of the first 30 hours, until things got organised,’’ said Manuel.

Four of the 25 EPODS Manuel ordered couldn’t get to Wairoa before the closure of State Highway 2, so Civil Defence delivered the contents of those containers to him by boat.

Manuel now says Ministry of Internal Affairs funding has allowed Te Whare Maire O Tapuwae to replenish all the pods and investigate placing others around the district.

EPODs are made to order, for each group that orders one.

“We want them for community resilience and the intention now is to go out and request training from Civil Defence,” Manuel said.

That’s in line with the intention of the McPhails, who read with interest that the Hastings District Council has received Ministry for Primary Industries funding to initiate community Civil Defence hubs.

There are three models of EPOD, with 72 different skews. If a community thinks it primarily needs fuel and generators to survive in the aftermath of a disaster, then that’s what EPOD will supply.

If it needs medical equipment, satellite communication, food, bedding and cooking equipment, then they’re among the myriad items available.

“We need communities to get prepared and they’ve got to be prepared as if no-one is coming,” Lizzie McPhail said.

“Prepare for the worst, expect the best.”

EPOD says it is in consultation with central and local government, as well as funding providers, to install their containers in various parts of Hawke’s Bay and in New Zealand.

They acknowledge theirs is a commercial enterprise, but are eager to emphasise the worth of the pods as a public good.

EPOD says it should also be in a position to assist community groups with funding applications to create their own emergency hub.

“There’s a point of difference in that we’ve already supplied 25 of them. But it does come down to the economics of who’s going to pay,” Guy McPhail said.

Hamish Bidwell joined Hawke’s Bay Today in 2022 and works out of the Hastings newsroom.