Inquest into Cyclone Gabrielle and Auckland Anniversary flooding deaths gets under way
The timeliness and effectiveness of weather warnings and the emergency response to the Auckland Anniversary floods and Cyclone Gabrielle will come under scrutiny in a coroner's inquest that gets under way in Auckland on Monday.
The inquest will look into the 18 weather-related fatalities in
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Scoop
17 hours ago
- Scoop
Hawke's Bay Shares Cyclone Silt, Slash Lessons With Flood-hit Tasman
The head of the silt removal programme after Cyclone Gabrielle is drawing 'eerie' similarities with Nelson Tasman floods. The head of the $228 million silt removal programme after Cyclone Gabrielle in Hawke's Bay is drawing 'eerie' similarities with Nelson Tasman region, as the flood-hit areas look ahead to their own recovery. Communities across the top of the South Island were facing millions of dollars worth of damage to roading infrastructure, farmland and properties, following the two recent floods that struck the area within a two week period, from late June. Riverside properties in Tasman were grappling with woody debris, silt and waste strewn across their properties. Cyclone Gabrielle smashed Aotearoa in February 2023 with a force of heavy rain which caused flooding damaging infrastructure, properties and land on the North Island's East Coast. Twelve people died during the natural disaster. Large amounts of silt, forestry slash and waste were swept across the whenua, prompting councils across Hawke's Bay to set up an immediate regional taskforce to deal with the material. Taskforce lead Darren de Klerk said watching the news, there were similar scenes in Tasman as there were in Hawke's Bay and Tairāwhiti following the cyclone. 'It's quite an eerie similarity, I think when you look at some of the woody debris and some of the silt and mixed product that we had to deal with,' he said. 'Obviously, productive land is another similarity in the fact that a lot of the highly productive horticulture and viticulture land has been infected.' De Klerk said after an emergency, the early stages of recovery were usually shrouded in uncertainty. 'In the early days, anyone dealing with this will find it quite overwhelming,' he said. 'Firstly, it's just understanding the level of involvement that either Civil Defence or the council has in this recovery.' De Klerk said it broke Hawke's Bay up into six zones, triaged properties by severity, and then mapped out sorting and disposal sites, in efforts to 'chomp the elephant' one bit at a time. Since its beginning, the team moved more than 2.5 million cubic metres of silt across more than 1100 properties, returning around 7000 hectares of land to productivity. It cleared one million cubic metres of woody debris across the coastline and rivers, and sorted through 12,500 broken orchard and vineyard posts. He said in Hawke's Bay, councils had to 'take a leap' to support their communities, before the first round of government funding was announced several months after the event, in May 2023. 'Essentially, you don't have a rule book,' he said. 'From a community point of view, I can guarantee you the people behind the scenes are working as absolutely as hard as they possibly can to find solutions.' He said it was working with Tasman officials to share insights and avoid 're-inventing the wheel'. 'One of the biggest probably learning is just how you manage your contractor army,' de Klerk said. 'Having a standby list of contractors available, so you're not having to work through the procurement and contracting of suppliers in the heat of the recovery phase. 'My thoughts are with them and they'll be trying their absolute best.' De Klerk said the work must be methodical, and open communication with locals was vital. He was now working for the Hastings District Council on its ongoing water and roading infrastructure cyclone recovery.
NZ Herald
19 hours ago
- NZ Herald
Cyclone recovery: Hawke's Bay shares insights with flood-hit Tasman
Thick silt and upended tractors lie at the front of Pheasant Farm, Esk Valley, in the wake of Cyclone Gabrielle. Photo / RNZ / Jemima Huston Twelve people died during the natural disaster. Large amounts of silt, forestry slash and waste were swept across the whenua, prompting councils across Hawke's Bay to set up an immediate regional taskforce to deal with the material. Shane Fell says the floodwater left more than 500 tonnes of silt on the property. Photo / RNZ Taskforce lead Darren de Klerk said watching the news, there were similar scenes in Tasman as there were in Hawke's Bay and Tairāwhiti following the cyclone. 'It's quite an eerie similarity, I think when you look at some of the woody debris and some of the silt and mixed product that we had to deal with,' he said. 'Obviously, productive land is another similarity in the fact that a lot of the highly productive horticulture and viticulture land has been infected.' De Klerk said after an emergency, the early stages of recovery were usually shrouded in uncertainty. 'In the early days, anyone dealing with this will find it quite overwhelming,' he said. 'Firstly, it's just understanding the level of involvement that either Civil Defence or the council has in this recovery.' De Klerk said it broke Hawke's Bay up into six zones, triaged properties by severity, and then mapped out sorting and disposal sites, in efforts to 'chomp the elephant' one bit at a time. Since its beginning, the team moved more than 2.5 million cubic metres of silt across more than 1100 properties, returning around 7000ha of land to productivity. It cleared one million cubic metres of woody debris across the coastline and rivers, and sorted through 12,500 broken orchard and vineyard posts. He said in Hawke's Bay, councils had to 'take a leap' to support their communities, before the first round of Government funding was announced several months after the event, in May 2023. 'Essentially, you don't have a rule book,' he said. 'From a community point of view, I can guarantee you the people behind the scenes are working as absolutely as hard as they possibly can to find solutions.' Tasman properties face thick silt and debris, echoing Hawke's Bay cyclone mess. Photo / RNZ / Samuel Rillstone He said it was working with Tasman officials to share insights and avoid 're-inventing the wheel'. 'One of the biggest probably learning is just how you manage your contractor army,' de Klerk said. 'Having a standby list of contractors available, so you're not having to work through the procurement and contracting of suppliers in the heat of the recovery phase. 'My thoughts are with them and they'll be trying their absolute best.' De Klerk said the work must be methodical, and open communication with locals was vital. He was now working for the Hastings District Council on its ongoing water and roading infrastructure cyclone recovery. - RNZ
RNZ News
2 days ago
- RNZ News
Kaiteriteri campground flood victims count cost of storm damage
Bethany Park Campground received nearly 500mm of rain between two recent storms. Photo: RNZ/Samantha Gee Mud is still being scraped out from around caravans, vehicles and buildings in a Kaiteriteri campground, a week after heavy rain caused widespread flooding in the Tasman District. Bethany Park Campground manager Roger Armstrong estimated the area received nearly 500 millimetres of rain between the two recent storms. The camp survived the first flood on 27 June unscathed, but last Friday was a different story. He said several gullies at the back of the Kaiteriteri property fed into a creek that ran through the campsite. "All three main gullies had big slips, and there was timber, pine trees amongst that and they basically dammed up, until they burst. It was the bursting of those slips that caused the excessive amount of water down the creek. "Had we not had the slips, I think we probably would have managed it quite happily." The flood left 150mm of mud across parts of the Bethany Park Campground. Photo: RNZ Once the water receded, it left about 150mm of mud across the lower parts of the camp, with more timber and silt up the back of the site. A week on, mud was still being scraped up and carted away, with the clean-up likely to take another few weeks. Armstrong said six cabins and about three occupied caravans had water through them, and one cabin was likely a write-off, but no other buildings were affected. Of about 50 caravans stored at the camp, more than half had been damaged. One couple, Marguerite Besier and Roger Croft, had to be rescued from their caravan, as floodwaters rose last Friday. Besier said she watched the puddles outside slowly get bigger, then the water started to rise rapidly and the couple knew they had to leave. Croft opened the door and stepped down into water that was almost waist deep, telling Besier she needed to follow him. "Then, my wedding dress from 1979 bobbed past, with the freezer swirling around behind it, spewing out all our frozen goods," she said. "'Here goes my pack of spinach, oh, there goes my soup', all going round and round and round in a great big whirlpool in the middle of the awning, along with lots of debris, grass and sticks and logs. Marguerite Besier and Roger Croft had to be rescued from their caravan by a frontend loader. Photo: RNZ/Samantha Gee "It was just like a great big disaster soup." The couple's Huntaway cross dog - a rescue named Jack - jumped into the water and swam to a frontend loader that had come to their aid, and the couple followed him into the bucket. Many of the camp's other residents stood atop a nearby bank, watching the rescue and cheering when the couple made it to safety. They've since stayed at a cabin at the camp, and have been inundated with clothing, food and support from friends and other residents. Besier was gobsmacked when she saw their caravan the next day, surrounded by mud. Their insurance company has yet to assess it, but she suspects it and their car will be a write-off. The couple moved from Canterbury to Kaiteriteri in February, with the plan to retire in a tiny home in the region Besier considers her tūrangawaewae (place where one belongs). Despite the rain, that's still their plan. Their tiny home will be ready within the next month and, with additional re-inforcing, will be put on the same site their caravan was. Besier was pragmatic about adapting to cope with future weather events. "The only way we can do it is by working together and helping each other," she said. "It's the only way we're going to survive, just accept that this is how it is. "This is our swansong, this is where we want to be." Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero , a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.
