Ministry of Social Development staff criticised the response to the April floods by describing "initial confusion" and questioning the scale of the state of emergency, documents released under the Official Information Act have revealed.
The communications between ministry staff, released to the Rotorua Daily Post, describe difficulties co-ordinating the response with Rotorua Lakes Council and other external agencies.
The documents come after an independent flood review panel report released in December, which said it was "extremely fortunate that there was no loss of life from the flood".
The first concern raised by ministry staff in the wake of the one-in-100-year flood event, was that the state of emergency was "wrongly declared" for Ngongotahā.
"They know that there are people adversely affected by the floods living outside the Ngongotahā area but still in the Rotorua area," one ministry staff member said to another on May 3.
"We won't be limiting our support to people located in that discrete location."
However, when this claim was put to the council, primary civil defence emergency controller Stavros Michael said in a written statement "a state of emergency was not required for the rest of the district".
"A localised state of emergency was declared for Ngongotahā due to the severity of flooding there and the need at the time, determined by emergency services and the civil defence controller, to evacuate some residents."
Another issue raised on May 11, was "local welfare groups appear to be a bit underprepared or unaware of all of their roles/responsibilities".
"Comms appears to be an issue early on in such an event, and in the rush to provide support, often key processes are missed."
These processes included registering evacuees' details and communicating with other agencies.
This led to a "lack of information available from the council regarding the affected households," according to a ministry staff member's email on May 21.
"The Council Recovery Office is now trying to collate information."
The staff member listed other flow-on effects from missed processes.
"Feedback from the region suggests that the Civil Defence and Emergency Management local level response experienced some initial confusion around responsibilities. As a result, (in some cases) things like assistance with emergency accommodation were not addressed as official arrangements indicate they should have been."
The staff member said, "this led to the council referring some people needing emergency accommodation directly to MSD rather than the council arranging accommodation for them.
"Assistance was provided rather than referring them back to the EOC [Council Emergency Operations Centre], in what was an already confused and distressing situation."
Further to this, on June 29, a staff member wrote that MSD had to "manage expectations that clients are receiving everything they can".
"This is not helped by a real lack of understanding by external agencies of
what they are responsible for (and what we can do)."
The released documents included notes from a Partners Agency Groups meeting on June 7 that cited "extreme frustration and depression forming" in Paradise Valley and Reporoa, communities that suffered further heavy rainfall that week, on June 5.
The council also had to spend $5000 on legal advice, regarding residents who refused to leave insanitary homes.
In response to Rotorua Daily Post questions, Michael said the floods were a sudden and rare event, and decisions were based on the best information available at the time.
"Our top priority was the initial safety and welfare of residents and any procedural issues that arose were addressed and resolved.
''There is no value to the community in us debating or speculating via media about opinions expressed or statements made by staff from another organisation during the course of email discussions we were not part of and therefore don't have a full understanding of,'' he said.
"As is normal and proper practice following a civil defence emergency, we have had a full debrief and review with staff from all agencies and organisations that were involved. The focus of that debrief was on learning from our experiences as part of ongoing efforts to improve emergency preparedness and response.
"This also helps to inform ongoing work with communities to develop Community Response Plans... A key aspect of that work is helping communities understand how they can help each other and themselves in an emergency situation, particularly if they were cut off from other sources of help. Communities our staff are currently working with include Tarawera, Ngongotahā and Waikite Valley.
In June, Rotorua Lakes Council estimated the flood caused $5 million of damage to its infrastructure.
Insurance Council of New Zealand figures show the total value of claims from severe weather from April 27 to 29, including flooding in Rotorua, was $21.2 million.
By September 30 last year, the Ministry of Social Development had granted 166 Civil Defence payments for the flooding in Rotorua.
April 29 flood event:
- Bay of Plenty Regional Council reporting shows that by 5.25pm on April 29, Ngongotahā Stream was six times deeper than before the flood. It rose from 0.9m to 5.87m, where it flows beneath State Highway 5
- Niwa reported that Rotorua had its wettest hour on record with 51.8mm of rain falling between 10am and 11am, with a total of 167.8mm of rain falling between 4am on Saturday and 6pm on Sunday
- The regional council's truthed radar measurements showed that up to 80-90mm of rainfall was recorded in one hour in the area around Whakarewarewa and Puarenga Stream, and also north of the Ngongotahā catchment. Truthed radar estimates rainfall depth, and compares it rain gauge measurements, to form an adjusted value
Council changes introduced since:
- A new rain gauge on Mt Ngongotahā to improve flood warning abilities
- Modelling work on Rotorua streams such as Ngongotahā Stream catchment
- Regional council has appointed a locally available engineer to work with residents
- The two councils are working together to ensure consenting processes are well integrated with appropriate protection for properties
- A draft action plan is under way
- Regional council stabilising stream banks with rocks and native plantings
- Ngongotahā community emergency response plan created