Cyclone Gabrielle inquest: 'Deeply distressing' 111 calls heard by court

Some people who were stranded on roofs in Hawke's Bay during Cyclone Gabrielle as the floodwaters rose waited nearly an hour to be connected to 111, an inquest has heard.

Nineteen people died in 2023 during Cyclone Gabrielle and the Auckland Anniversary weekend floods, and the second phase of a coronial inquest is underway in Hawke's Bay.

Witnesses from Fire and Emergency (FENZ) described how at times during the cyclone, the communications centres could not maintain minimum staffing levels, and at one point a staff member went home.

RNZ understands from families of those who died, that many found calling 111 a distressing and traumatic experience as they were told no one was coming to rescue them, and some were advised to climb onto their roof or find a vessel to escape in.

An independent inquiry by former police commissioner Mike Bush found issues with the way some 111 calls were answered by police and FENZ, as people reported a lack of empathy and were often told no help was coming.

Gavin Travers from Fire and Emergency was the witness being questioned at the inquest today, as he is the national manager for FENZ communication centres and was working during the cyclone.

Data from FENZ was shown in court, detailing how many calls their 111 centres took between 13-16 February in 2023.

• Fire and Emergency received 3777 calls from 111
• 3468 of those calls were answered
• 309 calls were 'abandoned', meaning the caller hung up
• On the morning of 14 February some callers waited 54 minutes for their call for help to be answered

Jane Glover, the lawyer representing the victim's families, suggested the abandoned calls were because people gave up trying to reach 111 due to the huge wait times.

FENZ records shown to the court reveal that between 9.30am and 10am on that day, some callers waited up to 54 minutes on average.

"It's not because of the 111 system, it was our ability to answer.

"So having enough people there to answer the calls, it's not because the calls didn't come to us, they were there queued waiting for us to answer... we were busy," said Travers.

At the peak of the cyclone, one of the FENZ staff members left their shift. "I don't know why that person went home," said Travers.

"We tried to maintain the minimum shift staffing for ComCen (central communications centre) during Cyclone Gabrielle, but this was not always possible."

However, he said usually when this happened, procedures were altered, so that other regions answered more 111 calls, and the central communication team would focus on dispatching emergency services in their area.

Court hears 111 calls

The court heard several 111 calls recorded on 14 February. Some were in relation to the death of Maree Green who drowned at her home in Puketapu.

When a neighbour called 111 and was trying to explain where the property was, she was told by the operator that it was like finding 'a needle in a haystack'.

Another 111 call example was from Tutira, where Shona Wilson died when a slip crashed through her home.

The call was in response to an 'EText' from FENZ, asking for an update on the landslide situation. It was 12 minutes long, and between a relative and neighbour of Shona's, who had to explain several times to the operator that her home was okay, but across the road a massive landslide had hit a house.

"There's a big mudslide and it's gone right through the house.. there were three in the house, two have got out," the caller said.

The operator asked where the two people had got to, and the caller replied that they were still over there.

"They are trying to dig... but they can't find her."

The call was full of long pauses from the operator, and repeated questions, which Glover was critical about.

"That felt long, I'm sure you'll agree, it felt long to listen to even for us here without any immediate risk to life.

"I can only imagine that it must have felt much much worse for the family member calling about someone who may be dead or dying and needs help quickly," Glover said.

Glover said one issue was having different call takers respond to the same situation, and asked FENZ if the call should have been a simple question about whether anything had changed.

"That would have been a better call, absolutely yes. An opportunity there to understand why those long silences were necessary," said Travers.

FENZ: 'We had no experience in this situation'

Travers described the complex and overwhelming situation that FENZ 111 team were facing - slips, flooding and washed out bridges prevented emergency services from rescuing people, telecommunications were down in many parts of the East Coast, and the sheer volume of people needing help was unprecedented.

"It created a complex environment, and the team was very stretched physically and emotionally," he said.

At about 2am on 14 February the situation began escalating. 111 calls from Hawke's Bay were pouring in, and a FENZ situation report shown to the coroner's court detailed how callers were getting increasingly desperate, trying to smash their way out of the ceilings they were trapped in. Some people tried to swim for safety, and others were stuck in cars and surrounded by floodwaters.

"The calls from the Eskdale area in particular kept increasing and becoming more desperate as the hours went on," said Travers.

Travers became emotional as he told the court how he listened to all the 111 calls, and how even more than two years later, they were distressing to hear.

He said call takers were trying to do their best, but there was no standard operating procedures for a situation where FENZ was requested to rescue someone, but could not get to them.

"Not being able to physically get any responders by any means to any incident to try and provide help to someone trapped in their house... was not something we'd ever encountered.

"We had no experience in this situation and call takers did not have specific training on how to respond to such calls," he said.

Travers said call takers were empathetic, but "they were not all perfect".

"To that extent, the way in which any of the calls were handled contributed to the distress of the callers of the family and friends of the deceased.. this is deeply regretted," he said.

During the cyclone, shift and operation managers at FENZ discussed how to best give the 111 callers advice on what to. In some situations, they told people to climb onto their roofs or get to higher ground.

"In one extreme situation... (they were told) to try and do the best they could to keep their heads out of the water and hold on to each other for body heat," said Travers.

But in many cases, the 111 staff were unable to give people the key message of comfort, that help would be with them soon. He said this honesty was important though, as people needed the truth of the situation.

Since Cyclone Gabrielle, Travers said there has been extra training for all FENZ communication centre staff, including the appointment of a specific job that will oversee that training.

Extra funding has meant those staffing numbers have risen from 73 to 84 in the past two years.

Travers also explained how the 'survival guidance' for 111 call takers had been updated and would be rolled out by the end of the year. Some of the information includes:

• If the car begins to sink, turn on headlights, undo seatbelts, open the windows and exit the vehicle before it's fully submerged.
• If you're unable to evacuate a property due to the water level then move to the upper floor of a house or onto the roof.
• Do not go into the roof space unless you are able to get out onto the roof.

There are still more than 30 witnesses to be heard in the Cyclone Gabrielle Coroner's Inquiry, including the families of those who died, police, MetService, the Hawke's Bay Regional Council and Civil Defence.

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