Northland Civil Defence Emergency Management Group controller Graeme MacDonald, pictured in the North's newly activated Cyclone Gabrielle regional emergency co-ordination centre. Photo / Michael Cunningham
Northland Civil Defence Emergency Management Group controller Graeme MacDonald, pictured in the North's newly activated Cyclone Gabrielle regional emergency co-ordination centre. Photo / Michael Cunningham
Northland Civil Defence says escalating the region’s Cyclone Gabrielle situation and response into the country’s first National State of Emergency of its type will bring extra support.
Northland Civil Defence Emergency Management (CDEM) Group controller Graeme MacDonald said widespread power outages across the region were adding extra challenges for the North, increasing the impact of flooding, a hazard Northlanders were typically more used to.
More than 25,000 Northland households are without power – among 170,000 nationally.
MacDonald said recovery was going to be slow because region-wide power restoration would take some time.
High winds have been an ongoing issue, with a 140 km/h gale recorded at Cape Reinga on Monday, and another of 139km/h recorded at Tūtūkākā Harbour on Sunday.
MacDonald said the region’s two power companies, Northpower and Top Energy, were bringing extra people into the region to get the power back on as quickly as possible.
“They’re very aware of how important power is for everybody,” MacDonald said.
Emergency Management Minister Kieran McAnulty declared the National State of Emergency for seven days yesterday morning amid what he called a “significant disaster”.
The rare move is being brought in for just the third time, having previously been used only for the Christchurch mosque attacks and the Covid-19 pandemic response.
“This is an unprecedented weather event that is having major impacts across much of the North Island,” McAnulty said.
The declaration was signed by McAnulty and brings greater national-level support to Northland and the six other regions that have declared local states of emergency to date, including Auckland, Tairāwhiti, the Bay of Plenty, Waikato, Hawke’s Bay and Tararua.
The wreckage of a yacht scattered across the length of Paihia's main beach due to Cyclone Gabrielle. Photo / Peter de Graaf
Northland was the first place in New Zealand to feel the cyclone’s wrath after it spawned in the Coral Sea and was officially declared on February 8, with the major weather event slamming into the Far North on Saturday, February 12 and heading southward since then.
McAnulty said Dargaville’s evacuation was one of four serious situations in the spotlight nationally as the National State of Emergency was declared - along with Muriwai, Hawke’s Bay’s Esk Valley and Tairāwhiti.
Kaipara District Council (KDC) yesterday morning asked people to evacuate from 400 low-lying Mangawhare homes in Dargaville, with police and Fire and Emergency NZ (Fenz) personnel door-knocking and assisting with the evacuation.
Yesterday, a dozen people were evacuated from Awakino on the eastern outskirts of Dargaville ahead of that. At edition time, there were 65 people in the Civil Defence evacuation centre opened in Hokianga Road’s Holy Trinity Anglican Church.
This afternoon, KDC also started signalling the potential need to evacuate Ruawai residents concerned about flooding.
McAnulty said the declaration would better co-ordinate and prioritise the provision of often simultaneously required additional resources across the region and the six other affected regions that had already declared local states of emergency.
MacDonald said having the national declaration to support work already under way in the region would bring useful extra resourcing. Government resourcing had already been coming into Northland ahead of the national declaration. Further resourcing requirements for the North were now being looked into.
A regional-level Northland Civil Defence emergency co-ordination centre was activated on Monday, based at Northland Regional Council in Whangārei. This supports three local-level district council emergency operations centres in the Far North (Kaikohe), Whangārei and Kaipara (Mangawhai, with an incident management team in Dargaville).
MacDonald said Northland police and Fenz also had similarly-structured response team setups in place.
McAnulty said affected regional civil defence groups had indicated the national declaration was necessary, after indicating until yesterdaythat had not been the case.
He said the decision to declare a National State of Emergency was not a reflection of a lack of effort by first responders, who had done great work.
McAnulty and National Emergency Management Agency (Nema) acting director Roger Ball headed this yesterday’s press conference for the national declaration.
Ball said regional leadership, CDEM groups and emergency responders in Northland and other affected areas had been doing an outstanding job, but the widespread damage caused by the cyclone meant a national declaration to support them was needed.
“This declaration gives us the ability to co-ordinate further resources for affected regions,” McAnulty said.
Local Democracy Reporting Northland has asked McAnulty’s office how much of the Government’s newly announced $11.5 million fund towards helping Cyclone Gabrielle-impacted communities is coming to Northland.
Local Democracy Reporting is Public Interest Journalism funded through NZ On Air.
