“They are being asked to prioritise lives over plant decisions, although the authorities are leaning towards plant as a primary consideration.”
The National Emergency Management Authority (Nema) said it was working with partners to determine what response capacity, such as training, equipment, and deployment frameworks, will be required.
“Nema recognises that floods are New Zealand’s number one hazard in terms of frequency, losses, and declared Civil Defence Emergency Management emergencies, and the frequency and impact of these events is increasing[ly] driven by climate change,” it told RNZ in a media release on Monday night.
Was it a fair choice confronting the scores of crews who were widely hailed as heroes after the cyclone?
“They’re members of this community,” said Mundy, who was on IRBs (inflatable rescue boats) in the 2017 Edgecumbe floods, a foretaste of what was to come.
“Put them in the position of saying, ‘Well, I made the right decision cos I’ve still got my $250 wetsuit intact, but three or four people drowned’.
“It sounds a bit over the top, but that’s the decision that they were faced with.”
Climate change-induced flooding had forced a whole new way of rescuing onto SLSNZ.
It became the go-to boat rescuer in the last two years because its 250 IRBs were so flexible and numerous, and it built on lifeguards’ sea skills by adding formal swift water training for 100 volunteers, while another 40 learned to drive boats in floods.
But that had introduced a whole new set of funding squeezes, that were not helped by a multi-million-dollar Budget 2020 boost, because it only covered beach patrol work.
This was made worse by the not-for-profit only having a cost-recovery deal with police, and not with the other government first responders - Civil Defence and Fire and Emergency New Zealand (Fenz).
“This has just blown up in the last 18 months,” Mundy said.
“We’ve had a huge increase in deployment, and that’s really impacting on our members because they’re losing all this gear because of what they’re being asked to do.”
Wetsuits that were fine at the beach but not fit for purpose in floodwaters replete with sewage or chemicals were “probably a really good example of where as a country we need to get up to speed”, Mundy said.
After the 2021 Kumeū floods, SLSNZ had to shell out $12,000 to replace volunteers’ personal wetsuits, when emergency authorities would not pony up.
In Cyclone Gabrielle, raw sewage forced evacuations.
Afterwards, the to-ing and fro-ing over who paid was going on again.
Mundy was hopeful it would be worked out this time.
One option - trying to clean a wetsuit - was misguided as it required a lot of heat.
“So it gets wrecked, or we chuck it, or they make a decision, ‘Well, I can’t afford to chuck it so I’m gonna have to keep wearing it’,” he said.
“The bureaucracy is taking a while - and even within our organisation - to get up to speed.
“We just can’t flick a switch to be able to get the equipment so that we can respond safely.”
Real risks of sickness
The risks were real: lots of first responders got sick after Hurricane Katrina in the US. In March 2022 on the East Coast, six of seven local lifeguards got stomach bugs immediately after a river rescue.
No one got sick after Cyclone Gabrielle, Mundy said, which was testament to them getting better at staying safe - and learning from overseas experiences.
But while government money paid for some of SLSNZ’s flood training, their gear had not been keeping up.
The answer was neoprene drysuits.
But at $1200 a pop, SLSNZ could not afford its wishlist, which was to put drysuits at 60 caches around the country for quicker and safer flood rescue responses.
Mundy said the problem was there is no formal avenue to submit such a funding request.
The cyclone could yet be a game changer, including for flood rescue resourcing.
It came amid a review of search and rescue systems and funding by the Transport Ministry.
New Zealand Search and Rescue (NZSAR) said it was working with Fenz, Nema, SLSNZ and Coastguard New Zealand on a framework for working together in emergencies.
NZSAR said in emergencies, Civil Defence authorities normally tasked agencies such as SLSNZ.
This meant that while at the beach, cost recovery was straightforward, as SLSNZ dealt with police 99 percent of the time. But during floods it got its marching orders without being sure who would pick up the tab.
“Put in a flood capability, things get really confusing very quickly,” Mundy said.
“With the Hawke’s Bay, it was really a matter of just respond and get these people to safety and look at what’s going to happen later on - and we’re in that process now - what’s going to happen later on, who’s going to pay these bills?”
