Details of Mayor Wayne Brown’s independent review into Auckland’s fatal floods have emerged: with some Auckland Council staff having their schedules interrogated in “minute detail”, and frustrations expressed over inaccurate rain forecasts.
But the Herald can also reveal no one from the office of Minister for Emergency Response, Keiran McAnulty, has been interviewed as part of the review.
The report, by former Police Commissioner Mike Bush and costing $100,000, will be out before the end of this month, after its original March 6 release date was delayed.
No money has been paid to Bush’s team yet, but the mayor’s office has said “additional funding may be negotiated if needed”.
Brown commissioned the review from his own office budget on January 30, saying it would “look into all aspects, all people, myself included, plus the professionals, plus even the Government’s involvement in the response” to the January 27 floods: “Lessons must be learned”.
The Government has also confirmed to the Herald it will do its own reviews of the record-breaking and lethal January 27 floods, and Cyclone Gabrielle.
“We committed to a review of the response to the Auckland flooding event of 27 January and we stick to that. We’ve since also had to support the response to Cyclone Gabrielle,” McAnulty said.
“There are always lessons to take from a response. We’ve got two to look into now so we’ll look at the best way to go about that and confirm details pretty soon.”
A spokesperson also confirmed “Minister McAnulty and his office were not questioned as part of Mike Bush’s review”.
But the rapid review commissioned by Brown is nearing completion despite criticism from fellow Auckland councillor Chris Darby that it has the “potential for conflict of interest”. Darby formally wrote to McAnulty urging the Government to commission its own review.
The Herald understands Bush has been interviewing Auckland Council and mayor’s office staff in sessions lasting several hours. MetService has also confirmed it is co-operating.
“[They] went through my entire timeline. It was basically down to minute detail about all communication, correspondence, and any relevant information,” a council source said.
“Incredible detail, down to what I was listening to … phone calls … ‘did you know, where was that person? I don’t know …’
“I would say they were really focused on the process and the planning and making immediate recommendations to improve the performance and response next time round.”
However, the source said Bush and his team were not asking direct questions which named the key players in the emergency response to Auckland’s floods - such as Fire and Emergency regional manager Ron Devlin or McAnulty.
“No [names]. I felt that it was very much my timeline and I presume that they built and established [what happened] … by putting everyone’s information together,” the source said.
Deputy mayor Desley Simpson confirmed she was interviewed as part of the Bush review, as well as West Auckland councillor Shane Henderson from the Waitākere ward.
Henderson said he had a “very short, informal” phone conversation with Bush, who then asked him to emailsuggestions to improve the council emergency process in the future.
On the night of January 27, the councillor was helping direct traffic in his ward, rescuing people from flooded properties and made several calls to Brown alerting him to the dire situation in West Auckland.
“My discussion with Mike was more wide-ranging,” Henderson said.
“I really stressed the use of the text alert system - that would have been extremely helpful coming home from work at that time, to maybe take a bit more care on the roads and think about alternative arrangements. That might have helped things a lot.”
However, at least a handful of councillors on Auckland Councill’s governing body have had no contact from Bush’s team.
It is also understood there is frustration within sectors of the council and the mayor’s office over the rain forecasts leading up to January 27.
A weather alert email to all elected members of Auckland Council at 10.11am on January 27 from Auckland Emergency Management, informed by MetService, had a severe weather warning to “expect 50 to 80 mm of rain, especially in the east and north, with thunderstorms possible”.
However, a report by Auckland Council’s Healthy Waters team on February 16 highlights in a graph that a Niwa weather station at Motat, in Western Springs, recorded 140mm of rain on the evening of January 27.
On that graph, the Healthy Waters team were pointing out a seven-fold discrepancy in the 20mm forecast by US agency Metvuw and the 140mm Niwa measured.
MetService and Auckland Council reiterated to the Herald that Metvue and Windy apps in the Healthy Waters graphs are not the official weather forecasting service to the council - and the graphs in the council presentation were not used in the decision-making in the lead-up to or during January 27.
However, MetService did indicate that Metvue, which is based on the Global Forecast System (GFS) used in the US, is incorporated in their forecasting for New Zealand.
But MetService also uses European and British weather models, which are then interpreted by a New Zealand-based MetService forecaster.
A MetService spokesperson said a GFS forecast on its own is “not the same quality as the MetService models”.
Nevertheless, the Herald understands there have been persistent frustrations within the mayor’s office around the lack of warning from MetService and Auckland Emergency Management in the lead-up to January 27.
In February, the Herald reported that Brown and his office claimed they were not on the Auckland Council email distribution list to receive the vital updates being circulated to other council officials during the fatal downpour.
It’s understood that the Bush review into the emergency response to the January 27 flood will focus heavily on the planning process in the previous days.
“They will be unpacking planning … the forecast was just so wildly off,” one council staffer said.
MetService clarified it should be the sole informer to Auckland Council on matters of weather forecasting.
“MetService is New Zealand’s national weather provider and authorised provider of the country’s severe weather warnings,” MetService said.
“We are contracted by Auckland Council to provide them with weather information and consultancy services. MetService have been formally involved in the review and we have fully co-operated.”
Brown was widely criticised for the slowness of his public response to the downpour and the eventual decision to place the Auckland region in a state of emergency after 10pm when flooding was already widespread across the city.
The man is now in a critical but stable condition in hospital.