WEBVTT - Inside the inquiry asking if NZ was ready for the deadly Cyclone Gabrielle 0:00:05.640 --> 0:00:06.080 Kyota. 0:00:06.160 --> 0:00:09.360 I'm Chelsea Daniels and this is the Front Page, a 0:00:09.440 --> 0:00:16.480 daily podcast presented by The New Zealand Terror It's been 0:00:16.520 --> 0:00:21.560 more than two years since Cyclone Gabrielle and the Auckland 0:00:21.560 --> 0:00:23.800 Anniversary weekend floods. 0:00:24.040 --> 0:00:26.439 The storm en route to hit the North Island could 0:00:26.480 --> 0:00:29.280 be one of the biggest in twenty years. Be prepared 0:00:29.320 --> 0:00:31.680 to leave if you need to and have enough supplies 0:00:31.720 --> 0:00:33.800 to sustain yourself for up to three days. 0:00:33.960 --> 0:00:36.239 Well definitely in this time we have warning. There was 0:00:36.240 --> 0:00:37.280 no warning last time. 0:00:37.440 --> 0:00:40.840 Auckland and Thams Coramandel have extended the estates of emergency 0:00:41.159 --> 0:00:42.080 for another week. 0:00:42.240 --> 0:00:46.120 One shopper described the supermarket as crazy busy, with queues 0:00:46.159 --> 0:00:47.240 going right through the store. 0:00:47.520 --> 0:00:50.599 States of emergency have been now been declared for Northland 0:00:50.600 --> 0:00:54.320 to Auckland, Corimandel, tait Affati and Awporter. 0:00:54.000 --> 0:00:57.160 Key the messages please take care and follow the advice 0:00:57.440 --> 0:00:58.760 of emergency services. 0:00:59.120 --> 0:01:04.039 Nineteen people died. A three week long inquest has begun 0:01:04.240 --> 0:01:08.480 in Hastings District Court examining how prepared we were for 0:01:08.560 --> 0:01:13.679 the cyclone, how warnings were issued and the emergency response. 0:01:14.319 --> 0:01:17.760 Today on the Front Page, Open Justice reporter Rick Stevens 0:01:17.840 --> 0:01:20.959 joins us from court to take us through what we 0:01:21.000 --> 0:01:23.920 know so far and what we hope to learn. 0:01:23.920 --> 0:01:29.120 From these tragic events. 0:01:31.000 --> 0:01:34.479 So Rick, the first phase of the inquest was held 0:01:34.720 --> 0:01:36.559 in Auckland. Tell me about that. 0:01:37.080 --> 0:01:39.360 So the first phase in Auckland was held in August 0:01:39.480 --> 0:01:42.679 and it looked at the deaths of four people in 0:01:42.680 --> 0:01:47.120 the Auckland floods and then two others, two firefighters at 0:01:47.160 --> 0:01:50.080 Murrowai during Psycha, and Gabrielle that hearing look to the 0:01:50.080 --> 0:01:53.800 emergency responses and what led to a state of emergency 0:01:53.840 --> 0:01:57.880 being declared in Auckland along with the circumstances of the 0:01:58.000 --> 0:02:01.040 death of the people there. The Rawle inquiry has now 0:02:01.080 --> 0:02:04.600 moved to Hastings where it's looking at the fate of 0:02:04.760 --> 0:02:08.000 people who died as a result of cycling. Gabrielle on 0:02:08.040 --> 0:02:09.040 the East coast. 0:02:09.800 --> 0:02:12.160 Tell me a little bit more about the victims and 0:02:12.200 --> 0:02:13.440 what we know about them. 0:02:13.600 --> 0:02:16.800 So in hawks Bay there were initially seven men who died, 0:02:16.880 --> 0:02:20.680 four women and a little girl. She was sadly Ivy Collins, 0:02:20.680 --> 0:02:25.360 whose family home in Esdale was flooded. The oldest was 0:02:25.480 --> 0:02:28.400 Helen Street eighty six, who died in Napier. She was 0:02:28.480 --> 0:02:32.320 dependent on supplied oxygen and the coroner will be looking 0:02:32.360 --> 0:02:36.480 into kind of what happened there. Well. One significant development 0:02:36.600 --> 0:02:39.560 is that we've had an extra name added to the list, 0:02:39.560 --> 0:02:44.280 and that is that of Joseph Ahuiari, mister who really 0:02:44.320 --> 0:02:47.240 went missing in his car on the night of the 0:02:47.280 --> 0:02:51.400 cyclone and it's been a big kind of local mystery 0:02:51.400 --> 0:02:54.960 about what happened to him. There have been a number 0:02:54.960 --> 0:02:58.320 of searches for him since, both on land and at sea, 0:02:59.760 --> 0:03:04.920 and what happened to him has been perplexing. The police 0:03:04.919 --> 0:03:09.080 said they initially didn't think that his apparent death was 0:03:09.160 --> 0:03:12.080 linked to the cyclone, but now that they haven't furred 0:03:12.120 --> 0:03:15.320 it to the coroner and she has decided to include 0:03:15.320 --> 0:03:16.320 it in this inquiry. 0:03:16.520 --> 0:03:19.359 So that takes the number of deaths that the coroner 0:03:19.520 --> 0:03:22.320 is looking at in total to nineteen. 0:03:22.919 --> 0:03:26.400 That's correct, Yes, so those that are covering both Auckland, 0:03:26.680 --> 0:03:28.920 Hawks Bay and some others. 0:03:29.320 --> 0:03:34.600 I understand that three apparent self inflicted deaths post cyclone 0:03:34.639 --> 0:03:38.360 will also be included in the inquiry. What's the reasoning 0:03:38.400 --> 0:03:39.040 behind that? 0:03:40.000 --> 0:03:43.200 So there were three deaths occurred in the months after 0:03:43.360 --> 0:03:47.240 the cyclone that these have been included as being apparently 0:03:47.280 --> 0:03:49.880 self inflicted. I can't really tell you too much about 0:03:49.880 --> 0:03:53.760 that at the moment. There's still non publication orders around 0:03:53.920 --> 0:03:57.720 those people, and we'll get to learn more about them 0:03:58.080 --> 0:03:58.600 in time. 0:03:58.720 --> 0:04:05.960 I'm sure when cyclone Gabrielle came through, people were cut 0:04:06.000 --> 0:04:09.720 off for a long periods of time. The networks are 0:04:09.800 --> 0:04:14.600 quite resilient, but they're not resilient enough, and Gabrielle exposed that. 0:04:15.200 --> 0:04:17.920 Up until Gabrielle, we thought that if you had a 0:04:17.920 --> 0:04:21.040 handful of cables going into an area like I think 0:04:21.040 --> 0:04:23.960 it's Hawk's Bay that was both worst affected towns like 0:04:24.000 --> 0:04:27.719 Wairoa in Hawks Bay, they had a handful of lines 0:04:27.760 --> 0:04:30.839 going into those places, but the lines went across bridges 0:04:31.360 --> 0:04:34.000 and the bridges were wiped out, and a couple of lines, 0:04:34.040 --> 0:04:36.640 and it turns out that having two or three lines 0:04:36.640 --> 0:04:40.600 in isn't enough. You need more. So we're building resilience 0:04:40.640 --> 0:04:42.320 into the network and we've been doing a lot of 0:04:42.320 --> 0:04:44.760 work on that since Gabrielle and Gabriell's It was quite 0:04:44.760 --> 0:04:45.960 a wake up call for that. 0:04:50.560 --> 0:04:53.560 What is the judge looking at when it comes to 0:04:53.839 --> 0:04:56.920 cyclone Gabrielle in particular, I mean, what are some of 0:04:56.960 --> 0:04:59.920 the preliminary issues raised. 0:05:00.640 --> 0:05:03.120 So the current is looking at the circumstances of individual 0:05:03.120 --> 0:05:06.200 desk but also things like the flooding list of places 0:05:06.240 --> 0:05:12.120 like Salapu and take Karaka, and how agencies could have 0:05:12.200 --> 0:05:15.880 responded to the event, what could have been done better, 0:05:16.040 --> 0:05:20.000 whether in fact, you know, planning should allow for houses 0:05:20.000 --> 0:05:23.640 to be built in flood per areas that sort of issue. 0:05:24.360 --> 0:05:27.920 And are the issues facing each of those areas quite 0:05:27.960 --> 0:05:31.400 similar or are there specifics to each area that they'll 0:05:31.440 --> 0:05:32.479 be really honing in on. 0:05:33.440 --> 0:05:36.560 I think there will be specifics to each other, each area, 0:05:36.680 --> 0:05:41.560 although you know, although it was a district wide event, 0:05:42.200 --> 0:05:45.680 you know, there were things about each area that would 0:05:45.760 --> 0:05:48.520 be perhaps peculiar. 0:05:48.720 --> 0:05:52.440 The response of emergency services will of course be under 0:05:52.480 --> 0:05:55.600 the microscope over the next few weeks, given some people 0:05:55.640 --> 0:05:59.200 who actually called Triple one during the cyclone were told 0:05:59.360 --> 0:06:02.320 that there was no help available. What do we know 0:06:02.400 --> 0:06:03.279 about that thus far? 0:06:04.279 --> 0:06:06.119 We haven't heard too much about that at the moment. 0:06:06.200 --> 0:06:09.360 But yeah, so the coroner obviously will want to know 0:06:10.760 --> 0:06:12.760 what happened there. I mean, they were told it wasn't 0:06:12.760 --> 0:06:16.200 but I think just because the scale of what is happening, 0:06:18.200 --> 0:06:22.760 you know, the emergency services were stretched really really to 0:06:22.839 --> 0:06:25.839 the limit, So the corn will be looking at what 0:06:26.000 --> 0:06:29.400 warnings were issued by the authority beforehand, where the message 0:06:29.400 --> 0:06:32.320 is about what to do, were timely inaccurate, whether the 0:06:32.360 --> 0:06:37.760 emergency services were sufficiently prepared. There are also questions about 0:06:37.880 --> 0:06:41.760 rivers breaking their banks, the mitigations measures that might have 0:06:41.760 --> 0:06:44.960 been put in place, whether these were adequate, could the 0:06:44.960 --> 0:06:47.039 councils have done. 0:06:51.720 --> 0:06:56.320 Generally, What is the point of a coronial. 0:06:55.760 --> 0:06:59.240 Inquiry, Well, like any inquest, I think it seeks to 0:06:59.320 --> 0:07:03.080 establish a circumstances around a death, but also, you know, 0:07:03.120 --> 0:07:07.240 are there lessons that can be learned from that, what's happened, 0:07:07.279 --> 0:07:09.920 how can things be better handled, and you know what 0:07:10.000 --> 0:07:13.400 needs to be avoided in the future. In terms of 0:07:14.440 --> 0:07:16.920 this sort of event where it's a large scale event, 0:07:17.440 --> 0:07:20.120 very complicated, with a lot of agency is involved in 0:07:20.160 --> 0:07:24.679 the coordination between them, things happening in real time very quickly, 0:07:25.440 --> 0:07:27.600 you know what can be learned from that. I mean, 0:07:28.080 --> 0:07:30.520 there may be a whole heap of issues that come 0:07:30.560 --> 0:07:35.320 out of that that may help planning for future events. 0:07:36.360 --> 0:07:39.160 But that's kind of what the coroner is all about. 0:07:40.240 --> 0:07:42.920 And it's been a couple of years since the events. 0:07:43.080 --> 0:07:45.640 Have you been speaking to any locals. How are they 0:07:45.760 --> 0:07:49.680 feeling this coming up again? I suppose. 0:07:50.960 --> 0:07:53.320 I haven't had a lot of you know, I mean, 0:07:53.680 --> 0:07:56.680 I've mentioned to people that it's back on. They're interesting, 0:07:57.080 --> 0:08:00.400 interesting and of course, but I think they see as 0:08:00.480 --> 0:08:02.320 part of the process that has to be gone through. 0:08:02.920 --> 0:08:05.680 Who are we likely to hear from over the next 0:08:05.720 --> 0:08:08.400 few weeks, So. 0:08:08.480 --> 0:08:13.000 The next two weeks, well, this week anyway that the 0:08:13.000 --> 0:08:16.760 mister witnesses mainly sort of fire and emergencies, civil defense people, 0:08:16.760 --> 0:08:20.480 from the local councilors, the police. We'll probably hear more 0:08:20.480 --> 0:08:25.440 from the families next month. The circumstances around Joseph Whoy's 0:08:25.800 --> 0:08:28.000 disappearance will be considered next year. 0:08:33.480 --> 0:08:36.439 More Anna, It now seems for most of us that 0:08:36.600 --> 0:08:38.640 we are past the worst of the current weather event. 0:08:39.600 --> 0:08:41.760 The review that I announced and to what went wrong 0:08:41.800 --> 0:08:45.320 in the first twenty four to fort eight hours is underway. 0:08:45.960 --> 0:08:48.920 Bulkiners began the big Auckham clean up the very next 0:08:48.920 --> 0:08:52.079 morning after the flood. You've made me proud and humbled 0:08:52.080 --> 0:08:54.920 to be your mayor. You've risen to the challenge to 0:08:54.920 --> 0:08:57.880 look after your neighbors and your local communities, to leander 0:08:57.960 --> 0:09:01.560 helping hand and support our council staff on the ground, 0:09:01.559 --> 0:09:05.280 our emergency services and our volunteers have also been magnificent, 0:09:05.840 --> 0:09:09.840 in some cases putting themselves at risk. Today, our council 0:09:09.920 --> 0:09:13.600 focus moves from the emergency response to provide greater support 0:09:13.640 --> 0:09:17.280 to the big Auckhanm cleanup. The big organ cleanup is 0:09:17.320 --> 0:09:21.920 being led by communities, community organizations, local boards, local councils, 0:09:21.960 --> 0:09:25.959 the private sector and supported by Buckland Council and central government. 0:09:27.120 --> 0:09:28.719 So let's show in New Zealand and the world the 0:09:28.760 --> 0:09:30.880 strength of all the communities across our region. 0:09:38.760 --> 0:09:40.840 And when it comes to these kind of things, I mean, 0:09:40.880 --> 0:09:46.400 the witness lists can be enormous. What's it like sitting 0:09:46.480 --> 0:09:49.560 there and hearing the discussions because sometimes it can be 0:09:49.640 --> 0:09:52.000 quite monotonous. But it's all a part of the process, 0:09:52.080 --> 0:09:52.480 isn't it. 0:09:52.679 --> 0:09:55.240 I think yes, it isn't quite quite other process we've got. 0:09:55.840 --> 0:10:00.280 We've got fifteen councils in what is not it? So 0:10:00.480 --> 0:10:07.000 fifteen lawyers in a calling that's not not huge. So 0:10:08.320 --> 0:10:14.000 there's a lot to go through. There are different organizations 0:10:14.040 --> 0:10:18.079 and people who represented who will want, you know, to 0:10:18.200 --> 0:10:22.360 question witnesses and things like that. It's it is a 0:10:22.480 --> 0:10:26.840 long process. But then things that happen in the judicial 0:10:26.920 --> 0:10:28.600 system quite often are And. 0:10:28.679 --> 0:10:33.760 Tell me again, in terms of emergency services, who who 0:10:33.960 --> 0:10:36.439 will be representing each one of them? I suppose not 0:10:36.600 --> 0:10:40.319 the exact names, but I'm thinking foreign emergency will be there, 0:10:40.360 --> 0:10:41.080 no doubt. 0:10:41.600 --> 0:10:46.040 Yes. In fact, we've got, you know, a national commander 0:10:46.080 --> 0:10:50.920 from fire emergency here who happened to be the district 0:10:50.920 --> 0:10:54.360 commander at the time. And so you know, it can 0:10:54.440 --> 0:10:55.880 be people quite high level and. 0:10:56.040 --> 0:10:58.600 Has there been much interest in and around the courthouse. 0:11:00.240 --> 0:11:02.640 Not a great deal at the moment. It may be 0:11:02.720 --> 0:11:06.040 different when people know that it's on, but it's mainly 0:11:06.200 --> 0:11:11.280 sort of professional people who are who are there today 0:11:12.520 --> 0:11:18.920 and or people associated with the organizations that will be called, 0:11:19.240 --> 0:11:22.720 and mainly their lawyers. At the moment, as I say, 0:11:22.760 --> 0:11:26.360 that's probably around thirty odd people in the courtroom, half 0:11:26.400 --> 0:11:28.680 of them half of them are our lawyers. 0:11:28.880 --> 0:11:34.640 Thanks for joining us, Rick, You're welcome. That's it for 0:11:34.720 --> 0:11:37.959 this episode of The Front Page. You can read more 0:11:38.040 --> 0:11:42.600 about today's stories and extensive news coverage at enzdherld dot 0:11:42.720 --> 0:11:46.559 co dot nz. The Front Page is produced by Jane 0:11:46.679 --> 0:11:50.440 Ye and Richard Martin, who is also our editor. I'm 0:11:50.559 --> 0:11:54.760 Chelsea Daniels, subscribe to the front page on iHeartRadio or 0:11:54.840 --> 0:11:58.319 wherever you get your podcasts, and tune in tomorrow for 0:11:58.400 --> 0:12:00.000 another look behind the headline. 0:12:00.040 --> 0:12:00.240 It's