Northland Civil Defence chair Kelly Stratford says the Government must step in to force telecommunications companies to build better storm resilience for Te Tai Tokerau’s fragile infrastructure networks.
“The situation with ex-tropical Cyclone Tam shows how fragile Northland still is when it comes to power and telecommunications,” Stratford, who is also the Far North Deputy Mayor, said.
“It’s very dangerous.”
Those who had lost mobile phone coverage and broadband – and don’t have landlines – could not make emergency 111 calls, she said.
“That’s life-threatening. It puts everyone in a precarious position.”
Stratford said telecommunications companies were required by law to build resilience into their networks.
But based on her information to date, she said it appeared nothing had been done to address this further, after 60,000 Northlanders were without power, mobile phone and/or broadband during Cyclone Gabrielle in 2023.
“The Government needs to step in and wave the big stick.”
Many areas along Northland’s east coast were impacted by the lack of telecommunications, including Huruiki near Helena Bay, the Karikari Peninsula, Mangonui, Matapouri, Taupō Bay, Tikitikioure in the Bay of Islands and Ruakākā.
Northland Civil Defence chair Kelly Stratford, who is also the Far North Deputy Mayor, says the situation is "life-threatening". Photo / Michael Cunningham
Stratford said it appeared cellphone towers were failing even more quickly in the current ex-tropical Cyclone Tam weather event than they did in Cyclone Gabrielle.
Telco Forum chief executive Paul Brislen said none of Northland’s telecommunication towers, lines, cabinets or exchanges had been damaged during the storm.
“The only issue we have is the significant loss of power across the region,” Brislen said.
The sector was working closely with Northland power companies to ensure telcos were prioritised as critical infrastructure within their restoration plans, Brislen said.
Northpower crews work in the rain and wind to try and restore power to Northland homes. Photo / Northpower
Telecommunications were key infrastructure in the modern world but would not work without power and “there’s only so much we as a telco can do about power supply”.
Brislen said telcos operating in Northland had been moving generators to sites affected by loss of mains power overnight and into this morning, where it was safe to do so.
He said he looked forward to working out a solution with the Northland Civil Defence chair and power companies.
“The Government’s new Civil Defence Emergency Management Bill is expected to address some of these interdependency issues and also the need to prioritise restoration of key sites, such as telco sites, following an outage,” he said.
“We are working on what that could look like with Nema [National Emergency Management Agency],” Brislen said.
The beach at Cable Bay. Photo / Aaron McCloy
Meanwhile, Stratford said Northland had sought Government investment into building energy resilience in its recent regional deal proposal.
It was pushing for an energy bridge, with changes to legislation underpinning current electricity market pricing mechanisms so the Far North and Dargaville could invest more in sustainable energy, such as wind and solar.
“Given the amount of power we could have up here it would add massively to our resilience and continuity of supply,” Stratford said.
Stratford said people in Northland’s coastal areas needed to take care with a storm surge pushing up normal sea levels as a result of low air pressure and strong winds in conjunction with high tides – which are higher than usual at present because of the full moon on Sunday.
She said there was widespread flooding in low-lying areas in the Far North in particular, which had been amplified by storm surges and a high tide.
Lots of people were pitching in to shift easy-to-deal-with fallen trees on the road.
“The community spirit as always is alive and well in Te Tai Tokerau.”
Stratford said marae cyclone preparedness had been strengthened after Cyclone Gabrielle, which stood local communities in good stead for ex-tropical Cyclone Tam.
Many had generators, solar power with batteries and Starlink.
Stratford’s tips for keeping safe in ex-tropical Cyclone Tam:
Stay home if you don’t have to go out. Safety is a concern with trees across a number of roads.
Get the board games out. Do those things that are inside jobs.
If you’re missing backyard items such as trampolines or rubbish bins that have been blown next door, talk to your neighbours and restrain the items. Wait till later when weather conditions ease to bring them home. Doing so at present risks them becoming airborne again.
Check on your neighbours.
Reassure the elderly that there are people out there working to keep communities safe and they are not alone.
Take care with alternate home heating sources if power is out. Make sure to ventilate rooms with gas heaters. People should make sure they were fire-safe if lighting an open fire in their grate.
■ LDR is local body journalism co-funded by RNZ and NZ On Air.
