Dave Young died in floodwaters on 27 January 2023 in Onewhero, Waikato. Photo: Supplied via NZ Herald
Waikato Civil Defence (Waikato CDEM) has told an inquest that there were gaps in what it knew about what was happening on the ground on the night of the Auckland Anniversary floods.
The Auckland phase of the inquest into the deaths of 19 people during the two storms in early 2023 - including three men who died after the events - continued on Monday.
When torrential rain hammered Auckland and Waikato on 27 January 2023, Dave Young died after being swept away in floodwaters in the rural Waikato town of Onewhero.
Under cross-examination by the counsel assisting the coroner, Matthew Mortimer Wang, Waikato group controller Julian Snowball said it would have been helpful for them to be informed about the search for Young by emergency responders on the night of the floods.
Snowball said the forecasting for the heavy rain in Waikato was delayed on that night, and there were limitations in the information it received.
He said they relied on local authorities, like the Waikato Regional Council, for indications of an escalating situation - for instance if there was a spike in demand for requests for services.
Flooding in Auckland in 2023. Photo: RNZ / Finn Blackwell
Snowball said on the night of the flood, there was also no request for support or coordination from Waikato CDEM or the regional council by emergency services, despite the search for Young.
He said if police or Fire and emergency had told the council about the search for Young, that would've been escalated to Waikato CDEM, which would have in turn triggered them to gather more information about the weather impacts in Waikato that night.
Snowball said since early this year, Waikato CDEM had access to live data on where Fire and Emergency was attending incidents.
He said they did not yet have live data for police and Hato Hone St John ambulances, but added that they have raised the need for that access with those agencies.
Waikato CDEM was also now on a mailing list for weather-related impacts in Auckland, Snowball said.
However he clarified that it was incumbent on Waikato CDEM to look at the information from Auckland and identify if there were any border issues affecting Waikato.
Civil Defence grilled on doing more to warn residents of flood risks
The cross-examination of Waikato Civil Defence by the lawyer assisting the families of those who died in the weather events focused on whether more could have been done warn residents of hazards on the night of the Auckland Anniversary floods.
Jane Glover showed the inquest a video of severe inundation of rural roads in Onewhero from a flooding event in 2017, highlighting that the area was prone to recurring flooding.
She asked Snowball why Waikato CDEM did not know about the risks in its own boundaries, and what actions should have been taken to warn people during the weather events of 2023.
Snowball said he assumed that there would have been conversations between the community and the regional council about the risks in this area, and that the consequences of weather events were not expected to be as significant as what had eventuated in the 2023.
He said the Waikato Regional Council was now looking at where they could put in warnings about flooding risks around Onewhero.
Glover asked whether Snowball was aware - prior to evidence heard at the inquest - that the flood team only put out telemetry equipment - used for measuring river levels - when community proactively approached the council for assistance when they consider the flood risk in their area to be intolerable.
Snowball said he disagreed that it was up to communities to identify flooding risks and push for monitoring devices.
He said there was National Emergency Management Agency resilience funding for telemetry equipment, and that local civil defence would advocate to councils for such equipment to be installed where needed.
Since Young's death, civil defence controllers have been taken to Onewhero to be shown what a catchment prone to flash flooding looks like, so that they could consider whether there are similar catchments in their respective districts, Snowball said.
He said controllers were encouraged to consider what mitigation they could put in place in their own flood prone areas.
Glover asked further questions on whether a emergency mobile alert (EMA) should have been issued by Waikato Civil Defence on the night of the Auckland Anniversary floods.
She said Young's wife thought an EMA would've been "helpful", and the absence of an alert had caused her and her husband to go into the weather, oblivious of the true conditions and risks.
Snowball insisted the threshold had not been met at the time.
"The threshold for the use of the EMA is very high, and even with benefit of hindsight, I do not believe that the threshold for the EMA was met, because all three have got to be there," said Snowball.
The three criterion for an EMA to be issued include a hazard probability of greater than 50 percent, where there is a significant risk to life, health and property, and where an agency response should be taken immediately.
Snowball added he did not think the weather impacts on Waikato on the night was widespread enough to justify the alert.
When Glover asked whether he thought the EMA threshold guidelines should be loosened, Snowball said he thought there's an opportunity for a conversation on that.
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