A property in Esk Valley in the aftermath of Cyclone Gabrielle. Photo / Paul Taylor
A property in Esk Valley in the aftermath of Cyclone Gabrielle. Photo / Paul Taylor
Civil Defence says the evacuation alert system for Hawke’s Bay is more resilient and the region is “better prepared” for a natural disaster than before Cyclone Gabrielle.
However, a flood victim says the emergency mobile alert system needs a major overhaul, and he feels little has changed since the February 2023 cyclone - when his family failed to receive an evacuation alert until water was already pouring into their home.
Hawke’s Bay Today takes a look at improvements made to the alert system, and the infrastructure it relies on, two years on from the floods.
Hawke’s Bay Civil Defence and officials were “overwhelmed” during the cyclone and hampered by mass power and communication outages during Gabrielle, reports have highlighted.
It meant many residents who needed them did not receive a mobile alert warning them to evacuate until they were huddling under the eaves of their roofs, and in some cases they did not get one at all.
Hawke’s Bay Civil Defence Emergency Management Group acting group manager Shane Briggs said, two years on, the emergency mobile alert (EMA) system remained the primary warning system for the region and nationwide.
That involves an emergency text being sent to mobile phones containing evacuation details.
Briggs said it “remains the most effective tool for emergency alerts” and improvements had been made to support the system.
“There has been immense work done by telecommunications providers in rebuilding from Gabrielle and improving the network,” he said.
“To build resilience to flood-debris damage, bridge-carried fibre is being moved to tall poles upstream of those bridges, out of reach of woody debris.
“Operators are also looking into running fibre under riverbeds where feasible, for additional resilience.”
As well as the EMA system, Hawke’s Bay Civil Defence shares information on its Facebook page and website during an emergency, and can utilise emergency services (such as to knock on doors) or share messages via radio.
“Public alerting systems are important, but they do not replace personal preparedness and awareness of natural warning signs or official weather warnings,” Briggs said.
“For example, if there is a long or strong earthquake that could generate a tsunami, communities must act immediately and self-evacuate without waiting for an official alert.
“Everyone should take steps to be prepared for emergencies and act if they feel their life is at risk. ”
Hawke’s Bay Regional Council (HBRC) is responsible for providing timely information on worsening weather and river conditions - from its many monitoring sites - to assist Civil Defence.
Devastation left behind by Cyclone Gabrielle in Hawke's Bay. Photo / Supplied
Civil Defence, in turn, can use that information to help make decisions on evacuation alerts (in collaboration with councils).
Other authorised agencies (such as police and Fire and Emergency NZ) can also issue emergency mobile alerts.
“We have repaired and restored and expanded our telemetry reporting stations. These 43 stations monitor river flows and rainfall, and now have back-up power supplies and multiple redundancies built in,” HBRC chief executive Nic Peet said.
A cyclone report released last July was critical of the messaging from the regional council to Civil Defence in the lead-up to the cyclone, which “was not as clear and decisive as it could have been”.
It recommended HBRC should identify “specific trigger levels for alerts and recommended evacuations for known flood risk areas”.
The regional council has worked on its trigger levels, which are effectively a threshold point to suggest flooding could occur and Civil Defence needs to be notified.
As part of that work, the council is installing 27 river cameras across the region by the end of this year, up from four before the cyclone. Those cameras will also be accessible to the public (who can use them to make decisions to self-evacuate).
Peet said they had long used trigger levels on rivers which were “not always simple and flooding can be unpredictable”.
A council spokesman said it was not as simple as having a monitor on a river which sends an alert whenever water reaches a certain height, but the council combines that data with rainfall forecasts and “complex flood forecasting models” to determine if a trigger level is likely to be reached.
“We also have further developed our working relationship with MetService,” Peet said.
‘Don’t think anyone has learnt anything’
Pākōwhai resident and flood victim Geoff Downer said his main issue during the cyclone was “no one told us” his family were in trouble.
His partner received an emergency mobile alert once their home had already badly flooded in the cyclone. The couple were sitting on chairs above the kitchen bench at the time, and his son was on the roof. They were eventually rescued.
Geoff Downer's home was flooded in the cyclone. Photo / Paul Taylor
“We were considerably wet by the time we got the alert,” he said.
“[During Gabrielle] we could have had five hours' notice and we could have saved our animals and saved some of our possessions. If you have got enough notice you can do that.”
Downer said he believed there needed to be “a major, major overhaul” of the emergency mobile alert system, so it was not so susceptible to power and telecommunication outages.
“Nothing has moved forward ... I don’t think anyone has learnt anything yet.”
He said he would certainly self-evacuate in extreme weather events in future.
Gary Hamilton-Irvine is a Hawke’s Bay-based reporter who covers a range of news topics including business, councils, breaking news and cyclone recovery. He formerly worked at News Corp Australia.
