Mayor calls for better comms from National Emergency Management Agency

The Gisborne city river system in flood after Cyclone Gabrielle, pictured on the morning of February 14 last year. Photo / Ben Cowper

Gisborne’s mayor has called for greater communication from National Emergency Management Agency, saying it needs to “trust us” to make decisions in the wake of an internal review into Nema’s response to Cyclone Gabrielle.

The review found the organisation was “under-resourced and unprepared” for the impact of the cyclone. It said Nema was short-staffed, had significant communications problems and lacked sufficient numbers of trained staff to handle the impact of the major weather event.

In a Radio New Zealand interview yesterday, Gisborne Mayor Rehette Stoltz congratulated Nema for its response to the review, but at the same time pointed to areas of Nema’s operation that could still be improved.

“What we saw last year with Gabrielle was next-level, and that is our new normal,” she said.

“Some of the Nema review findings do reflect some of the issues we experienced once it became a national state of emergency.

“Our staff were assisted by Nema during Gabrielle because we’ve been through it before, and we have a great working relationship with them.

“There were two regional emergency management advisers from Nema here assisting us,” Stoltz said.

“But still we needed more assistance, so we reached out to other regional councils, [which] leaned in to help us.”

Gisborne Mayor Rehette Stoltz is calling for better communications from Nema in future emergencies.

The mayor went on to say there needed to be better communication in the future.

“During Gabrielle, we were told Nema had helicopters doing grid searches in our airspace, flying past our people on the ground, and we were unaware of that.

“That sort of communication is very important, so that we can better coordinate our own efforts.”

Send up one helicopter to do a job for Nema and also Civil Defence Tairāwhiti, she said.

“Also, we do need Nema to trust us at a local level to make decisions for our communities.

“We know what we are doing; we know what our communities need.”

Stoltz also said the financial sign-offs from Nema during emergencies like Cyclone Gabrielle needed to be made much easier “to enable local leaders to be able to look after their communities during times of limited communications”.

“We need that trust.”

She congratulated Nema for its “really proactive” response to the changing times when it came to weather events.

“They are really trying to ensure we are match-fit next time.”