State Highway 35 near Mangatuna was completely cut off due to a bridge washed away in Cyclone Gabrielle. Photo / George Heard
State Highway 35 near Mangatuna was completely cut off due to a bridge washed away in Cyclone Gabrielle. Photo / George Heard
EDITORIAL
Planning for future extreme weather disasters in New Zealand will be heading down more than one path.
There are strategies and measures to tackle climate change but there’s also the problem of how to make our communities safer in emergencies. The focus on building resilience will need to beon a national scale but also focused on the specific needs of regions.
Consider what has happened to cities and districts on the eastern coast of the North Island. At the height of Cyclone Gabrielle’s fury, they were physically isolated and lacked links to the rest of the country, even as people were being rescued and evacuated.
Lives were lost. Power was down, there was no internet or Eftpos, no way to make calls or send messages. Areas including Gisborne and Napier were cut off by road slips. Some bridges were damaged; water pipes were broken; fuel, food, and water were in short supply.
Some progress has been made with emergency crews working hard, trucks delivering provisions, supermarkets reopening, flights getting in, generators being deployed, and Starlink satellite connections set up.
Various aspects of what we consider to be normal life broke down in some areas under the cyclone’s intensity: electricity, phone and broadband coverage, transport infrastructure, water supplies, grocery provisions, basic housing safety.
Scientists say we will be plagued by more frequent and intense weather events, and the story of the past weeks has been the cumulative wear and tear they can cause.
Unfortunately, the country faces problems that are decades in the making. Any changes in response need to clearly explain the costs involved: Some solutions could be more expensive in the short-term but are better for the long term than constantly going through temporary fixes.
More use of wetlands and park areas to absorb floods has been discussed in the aftermath of the January 27 storm in Auckland and also applies to regions outside the city.
There could be extra storage capacity created in areas likely to be isolated in a disaster for power generators, fuel and water tanks, non-perishable food and supplies.
A microgrid electricity system would be useful for vulnerable regions when there are problems with the national grid. They can be run on renewable energy sources.
Making the Starlink system more accessible in the regions seems a necessary development. And the fact that satellite links and mini cell sites have been flown into Gisborne, suggests that some small, mobile back-up system should be stationed at regional airports.
The locations of important equipment such as stormwater pump stations and electricity substations could be assessed for vulnerability to flooding.
Prime Minister Chris Hipkins has mentioned some issues to be looked at, such as the forestry industry’s handling of wood waste.
Extraordinary destruction caused by forestry slash displaced by Cyclone Gabrielle on the East Coast. Photo / Unison via Facebook
On transport links, he said: “We have to get real about some of the roads and the fact we are going to have to move some of the roads to where they are more resilient.”
There are key routes in badly affected regions: the coastal roads around Coromandel’s towns; the link from Gisborne to Napier and Hastings, then south to Palmerston North; the northwest road from Napier to Taupō; and links from Gisborne to the Bay of Plenty.
There have been arguments made for more use of porous cement in urban areas instead of cheaper tar and chip.
Dr Tim Welch, director of the University of Auckland’s Urban Planning Programme, said after the Auckland floods: “We can preserve wetlands where they still exist, and we can replace impermeable surfaces, like roads and car parks, with porous cement that helps drain and filter rainwater”.
He said: “We’re talking about a reduction in buildings flooding, roads flooding, if we can get the water off the surface of the road quickly, we reduce the risk of the road being washed away.“
Rob Gaimster, chief executive of Concrete New Zealand, says: “The Government must give serious consideration to building concrete roads, particularly for our critical arterial routes”.
If society accepts that there are some areas too risky for floods and slips to develop or live in, then a scheme would be required to help people and communities relocate.
Environmental planning for newly-built areas and for places left behind would have to be part of the process.
There’s a difference between proactively making sensible adaptations to changing conditions rather than just putting up with or normalising a worsening reality, and continuing to pay for it.
