The danger of individualism in a cyclone warning – Editorial

A rogue windsurfer at Westshore in Napier during a state of emergency for Cyclone Vaianu. Photo / Lee Pritchard

The coronial inquest into deaths in Hawke’s Bay during Cyclone Gabrielle has provided a timely reminder of just why the preparation for Cyclone Vaianu was so important.

The stories shared in the Hastings courtroom over the past few days have been harrowing.

There’s Gareth Jones, a man who has to live with the memory of trying to hold on to his friend in raging floodwaters before she was swept away.

Then there’s Ella Collins, who says the warnings came far too late that February 2023 night.

Ella lost her 2-year-old, Ivy. Words cannot do justice to her and her family’s heartbreak.

With these stories now ringing fresh again in minds, it’s fair to say the Hawke’s Bay communities of Te Awanga and Haumoana did themselves no favours in the public eye over the weekend.

Residents of more than 500 homes around the region were told to evacuate after Central Hawke’s Bay, Hastings, Napier and Hawke’s Bay Regional Council put coastal areas into a local state of emergency on Saturday.

The majority of these were on the Cape Coast of Hastings, an area well known for storm-surging waves breaching the beach crest and swamping beachside homes.

Wairoa Mayor Craig Little – he of the “woke” quote – says states of emergency are being used too much in New Zealand nowadays.

There’s an argument he’s right, with the benefit of hindsight, given what actually rolled through with Cyclone Vaianu.

Civil Defence knows that “cry wolf” syndrome is real, and that it can’t over-react every time a cyclone develops near Fiji.

But hindsight isn’t available to members of the public in the middle of a warning about an incoming cyclone.

Yet, when Hawke’s Bay Today knocked on the doors of beachside homes on the Cape Coast on Monday, the majority of people said they’d thought about Civil Defence’s message, but had made the call to stay.

The general vibe of their reasoning was: “This isn’t our first rodeo - we know the sea out here.”

“We have a plan to get out quickly if it turns bad.”

“We felt confident it wasn’t going to be as bad as they said.”

Eskdale residents knew their river too. But cyclones born in the Pacific don’t play by the rules of normal weather events.

It’s understandable that people care about their home security, their home comforts, and want to defend their home from the elements if it comes to it.

But the reality is that if a state of emergency is declared, and a Civil Defence representative – usually your local police officer, council officer, firefighter – arrives at your door and tells you that you’re being asked to leave, then the decision is a very simple one.

You leave.

You don’t have another discussion with your neighbours about whether it’s really going to be that bad.

You don’t “do your own research” about the weather forecast – a position that we’re used to hearing in the bad old days of Covid denialism and anti-vax tensions.

You lock your doors and you leave.

Otherwise, you’ve lost the right to call yourselves a tight-knit community – you’re just a group of individualists.

Chris Hyde has been editor of Hawke’s Bay Today since 2022. The paper won national and international awards for its coverage of Cyclone Gabrielle in 2023.