October 6, 2025 • 12 mins
It’s been more than two years since Cyclone Gabrielle and the Auckland Anniversary Weekend floods.
Nineteen people died.
A three-week long inquest has begun in Hastings District Court, examining how prepared we were for the cyclone, how warnings were issued, and the emergency response.
Today on The Front Page, Open Justice reporter Ric Stevens joins us to take us through what we know so far, and what we hope to learn from these tragic events.
Follow The Front Page on iHeartRadio, Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts.
You can read more about this and other stories in the New Zealand Herald, online at nzherald.co.nz, or tune in to news bulletins across the NZME network.
Host: Chelsea Daniels
Editor/Producer: Richard Martin
Producer: Jane Yee
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:05):
Kyota.
Speaker 2 (00:06):
I'm Chelsea Daniels and this is the Front Page, a
daily podcast presented by The New Zealand Terror It's been
more than two years since Cyclone Gabrielle and the Auckland
Anniversary weekend floods.
Speaker 1 (00:24):
The storm en route to hit the North Island could
be one of the biggest in twenty years. Be prepared
to leave if you need to and have enough supplies
to sustain yourself for up to three days.
Speaker 3 (00:33):
Well definitely in this time we have warning. There was
no warning last time.
Speaker 1 (00:37):
Auckland and Thams Coramandel have extended the estates of emergency
for another week.
Speaker 4 (00:42):
One shopper described the supermarket as crazy busy, with queues
going right through the store.
Speaker 1 (00:47):
States of emergency have been now been declared for Northland
to Auckland, Corimandel, tait Affati and Awporter.
Speaker 3 (00:54):
Key the messages please take care and follow the advice
of emergency services.
Speaker 1 (00:59):
Nineteen people died. A three week long inquest has begun
in Hastings District Court examining how prepared we were for
the cyclone, how warnings were issued and the emergency response.
Today on the Front Page, Open Justice reporter Rick Stevens
joins us from court to take us through what we
(01:21):
know so far and what we hope to learn.
Speaker 2 (01:23):
From these tragic events.
Speaker 1 (01:31):
So Rick, the first phase of the inquest was held
in Auckland. Tell me about that.
Speaker 5 (01:37):
So the first phase in Auckland was held in August
and it looked at the deaths of four people in
the Auckland floods and then two others, two firefighters at
Murrowai during Psycha, and Gabrielle that hearing look to the
emergency responses and what led to a state of emergency
being declared in Auckland along with the circumstances of the
(01:58):
death of the people there. The Rawle inquiry has now
moved to Hastings where it's looking at the fate of
people who died as a result of cycling. Gabrielle on
the East coast.
Speaker 1 (02:09):
Tell me a little bit more about the victims and
what we know about them.
Speaker 5 (02:13):
So in hawks Bay there were initially seven men who died,
four women and a little girl. She was sadly Ivy Collins,
whose family home in Esdale was flooded. The oldest was
Helen Street eighty six, who died in Napier. She was
dependent on supplied oxygen and the coroner will be looking
into kind of what happened there. Well. One significant development
(02:36):
is that we've had an extra name added to the list,
and that is that of Joseph Ahuiari, mister who really
went missing in his car on the night of the
cyclone and it's been a big kind of local mystery
about what happened to him. There have been a number
of searches for him since, both on land and at sea,
(02:59):
and what happened to him has been perplexing. The police
said they initially didn't think that his apparent death was
linked to the cyclone, but now that they haven't furred
it to the coroner and she has decided to include
it in this inquiry.
Speaker 1 (03:16):
So that takes the number of deaths that the coroner
is looking at in total to nineteen.
Speaker 5 (03:22):
That's correct, Yes, so those that are covering both Auckland,
Hawks Bay and some others.
Speaker 1 (03:29):
I understand that three apparent self inflicted deaths post cyclone
will also be included in the inquiry. What's the reasoning
behind that?
Speaker 5 (03:40):
So there were three deaths occurred in the months after
the cyclone that these have been included as being apparently
self inflicted. I can't really tell you too much about
that at the moment. There's still non publication orders around
those people, and we'll get to learn more about them
in time.
Speaker 4 (03:58):
I'm sure when cyclone Gabrielle came through, people were cut
off for a long periods of time. The networks are
quite resilient, but they're not resilient enough, and Gabrielle exposed that.
Up until Gabrielle, we thought that if you had a
handful of cables going into an area like I think
(04:21):
it's Hawk's Bay that was both worst affected towns like
Wairoa in Hawks Bay, they had a handful of lines
going into those places, but the lines went across bridges
and the bridges were wiped out, and a couple of lines,
and it turns out that having two or three lines
in isn't enough. You need more. So we're building resilience
into the network and we've been doing a lot of
(04:42):
work on that since Gabrielle and Gabriell's It was quite
a wake up call for that.
Speaker 1 (04:50):
What is the judge looking at when it comes to
cyclone Gabrielle in particular, I mean, what are some of
the preliminary issues raised.
Speaker 5 (05:00):
So the current is looking at the circumstances of individual
desk but also things like the flooding list of places
like Salapu and take Karaka, and how agencies could have
responded to the event, what could have been done better,
whether in fact, you know, planning should allow for houses
to be built in flood per areas that sort of issue.
Speaker 1 (05:24):
And are the issues facing each of those areas quite
similar or are there specifics to each area that they'll
be really honing in on.
Speaker 5 (05:33):
I think there will be specifics to each other, each area,
although you know, although it was a district wide event,
you know, there were things about each area that would
be perhaps peculiar.
Speaker 1 (05:48):
The response of emergency services will of course be under
the microscope over the next few weeks, given some people
who actually called Triple one during the cyclone were told
that there was no help available. What do we know
about that thus far?
Speaker 5 (06:04):
We haven't heard too much about that at the moment.
But yeah, so the coroner obviously will want to know
what happened there. I mean, they were told it wasn't
but I think just because the scale of what is happening,
you know, the emergency services were stretched really really to
the limit, So the corn will be looking at what
(06:26):
warnings were issued by the authority beforehand, where the message
is about what to do, were timely inaccurate, whether the
emergency services were sufficiently prepared. There are also questions about
rivers breaking their banks, the mitigations measures that might have
been put in place, whether these were adequate, could the
councils have done.
Speaker 1 (06:51):
Generally, What is the point of a coronial.
Speaker 5 (06:55):
Inquiry, Well, like any inquest, I think it seeks to
establish a circumstances around a death, but also, you know,
are there lessons that can be learned from that, what's happened,
how can things be better handled, and you know what
needs to be avoided in the future. In terms of
this sort of event where it's a large scale event,
(07:17):
very complicated, with a lot of agency is involved in
the coordination between them, things happening in real time very quickly,
you know what can be learned from that. I mean,
there may be a whole heap of issues that come
out of that that may help planning for future events.
But that's kind of what the coroner is all about.
Speaker 1 (07:40):
And it's been a couple of years since the events.
Have you been speaking to any locals. How are they
feeling this coming up again? I suppose.
Speaker 5 (07:50):
I haven't had a lot of you know, I mean,
I've mentioned to people that it's back on. They're interesting,
interesting and of course, but I think they see as
part of the process that has to be gone through.
Speaker 1 (08:02):
Who are we likely to hear from over the next
few weeks, So.
Speaker 5 (08:08):
The next two weeks, well, this week anyway that the
mister witnesses mainly sort of fire and emergencies, civil defense people,
from the local councilors, the police. We'll probably hear more
from the families next month. The circumstances around Joseph Whoy's
disappearance will be considered next year.
Speaker 3 (08:33):
More Anna, It now seems for most of us that
we are past the worst of the current weather event.
The review that I announced and to what went wrong
in the first twenty four to fort eight hours is underway.
Bulkiners began the big Auckham clean up the very next
morning after the flood. You've made me proud and humbled
to be your mayor. You've risen to the challenge to
(08:54):
look after your neighbors and your local communities, to leander
helping hand and support our council staff on the ground,
our emergency services and our volunteers have also been magnificent,
in some cases putting themselves at risk. Today, our council
focus moves from the emergency response to provide greater support
to the big Auckhanm cleanup. The big organ cleanup is
(09:17):
being led by communities, community organizations, local boards, local councils,
the private sector and supported by Buckland Council and central government.
So let's show in New Zealand and the world the
strength of all the communities across our region.
Speaker 1 (09:38):
And when it comes to these kind of things, I mean,
the witness lists can be enormous. What's it like sitting
there and hearing the discussions because sometimes it can be
quite monotonous. But it's all a part of the process,
isn't it.
Speaker 5 (09:52):
I think yes, it isn't quite quite other process we've got.
We've got fifteen councils in what is not it? So
fifteen lawyers in a calling that's not not huge. So
there's a lot to go through. There are different organizations
(10:14):
and people who represented who will want, you know, to
question witnesses and things like that. It's it is a
long process. But then things that happen in the judicial
system quite often are And.
Speaker 1 (10:28):
Tell me again, in terms of emergency services, who who
will be representing each one of them? I suppose not
the exact names, but I'm thinking foreign emergency will be there,
no doubt.
Speaker 5 (10:41):
Yes. In fact, we've got, you know, a national commander
from fire emergency here who happened to be the district
commander at the time. And so you know, it can
be people quite high level and.
Speaker 1 (10:56):
Has there been much interest in and around the courthouse.
Speaker 5 (11:00):
Not a great deal at the moment. It may be
different when people know that it's on, but it's mainly
sort of professional people who are who are there today
and or people associated with the organizations that will be called,
and mainly their lawyers. At the moment, as I say,
(11:22):
that's probably around thirty odd people in the courtroom, half
of them half of them are our lawyers.
Speaker 1 (11:28):
Thanks for joining us, Rick, You're welcome. That's it for
this episode of The Front Page. You can read more
about today's stories and extensive news coverage at enzdherld dot
co dot nz. The Front Page is produced by Jane
Ye and Richard Martin, who is also our editor. I'm
(11:50):
Chelsea Daniels, subscribe to the front page on iHeartRadio or
wherever you get your podcasts, and tune in tomorrow for
another look behind the headline.
Speaker 5 (12:00):
It's
Kyota.
Speaker 2 (00:06):
I'm Chelsea Daniels and this is the Front Page, a
daily podcast presented by The New Zealand Terror It's been
more than two years since Cyclone Gabrielle and the Auckland
Anniversary weekend floods.
Speaker 1 (00:24):
The storm en route to hit the North Island could
be one of the biggest in twenty years. Be prepared
to leave if you need to and have enough supplies
to sustain yourself for up to three days.
Speaker 3 (00:33):
Well definitely in this time we have warning. There was
no warning last time.
Speaker 1 (00:37):
Auckland and Thams Coramandel have extended the estates of emergency
for another week.
Speaker 4 (00:42):
One shopper described the supermarket as crazy busy, with queues
going right through the store.
Speaker 1 (00:47):
States of emergency have been now been declared for Northland
to Auckland, Corimandel, tait Affati and Awporter.
Speaker 3 (00:54):
Key the messages please take care and follow the advice
of emergency services.
Speaker 1 (00:59):
Nineteen people died. A three week long inquest has begun
in Hastings District Court examining how prepared we were for
the cyclone, how warnings were issued and the emergency response.
Today on the Front Page, Open Justice reporter Rick Stevens
joins us from court to take us through what we
(01:21):
know so far and what we hope to learn.
Speaker 2 (01:23):
From these tragic events.
Speaker 1 (01:31):
So Rick, the first phase of the inquest was held
in Auckland. Tell me about that.
Speaker 5 (01:37):
So the first phase in Auckland was held in August
and it looked at the deaths of four people in
the Auckland floods and then two others, two firefighters at
Murrowai during Psycha, and Gabrielle that hearing look to the
emergency responses and what led to a state of emergency
being declared in Auckland along with the circumstances of the
(01:58):
death of the people there. The Rawle inquiry has now
moved to Hastings where it's looking at the fate of
people who died as a result of cycling. Gabrielle on
the East coast.
Speaker 1 (02:09):
Tell me a little bit more about the victims and
what we know about them.
Speaker 5 (02:13):
So in hawks Bay there were initially seven men who died,
four women and a little girl. She was sadly Ivy Collins,
whose family home in Esdale was flooded. The oldest was
Helen Street eighty six, who died in Napier. She was
dependent on supplied oxygen and the coroner will be looking
into kind of what happened there. Well. One significant development
(02:36):
is that we've had an extra name added to the list,
and that is that of Joseph Ahuiari, mister who really
went missing in his car on the night of the
cyclone and it's been a big kind of local mystery
about what happened to him. There have been a number
of searches for him since, both on land and at sea,
(02:59):
and what happened to him has been perplexing. The police
said they initially didn't think that his apparent death was
linked to the cyclone, but now that they haven't furred
it to the coroner and she has decided to include
it in this inquiry.
Speaker 1 (03:16):
So that takes the number of deaths that the coroner
is looking at in total to nineteen.
Speaker 5 (03:22):
That's correct, Yes, so those that are covering both Auckland,
Hawks Bay and some others.
Speaker 1 (03:29):
I understand that three apparent self inflicted deaths post cyclone
will also be included in the inquiry. What's the reasoning
behind that?
Speaker 5 (03:40):
So there were three deaths occurred in the months after
the cyclone that these have been included as being apparently
self inflicted. I can't really tell you too much about
that at the moment. There's still non publication orders around
those people, and we'll get to learn more about them
in time.
Speaker 4 (03:58):
I'm sure when cyclone Gabrielle came through, people were cut
off for a long periods of time. The networks are
quite resilient, but they're not resilient enough, and Gabrielle exposed that.
Up until Gabrielle, we thought that if you had a
handful of cables going into an area like I think
(04:21):
it's Hawk's Bay that was both worst affected towns like
Wairoa in Hawks Bay, they had a handful of lines
going into those places, but the lines went across bridges
and the bridges were wiped out, and a couple of lines,
and it turns out that having two or three lines
in isn't enough. You need more. So we're building resilience
into the network and we've been doing a lot of
(04:42):
work on that since Gabrielle and Gabriell's It was quite
a wake up call for that.
Speaker 1 (04:50):
What is the judge looking at when it comes to
cyclone Gabrielle in particular, I mean, what are some of
the preliminary issues raised.
Speaker 5 (05:00):
So the current is looking at the circumstances of individual
desk but also things like the flooding list of places
like Salapu and take Karaka, and how agencies could have
responded to the event, what could have been done better,
whether in fact, you know, planning should allow for houses
to be built in flood per areas that sort of issue.
Speaker 1 (05:24):
And are the issues facing each of those areas quite
similar or are there specifics to each area that they'll
be really honing in on.
Speaker 5 (05:33):
I think there will be specifics to each other, each area,
although you know, although it was a district wide event,
you know, there were things about each area that would
be perhaps peculiar.
Speaker 1 (05:48):
The response of emergency services will of course be under
the microscope over the next few weeks, given some people
who actually called Triple one during the cyclone were told
that there was no help available. What do we know
about that thus far?
Speaker 5 (06:04):
We haven't heard too much about that at the moment.
But yeah, so the coroner obviously will want to know
what happened there. I mean, they were told it wasn't
but I think just because the scale of what is happening,
you know, the emergency services were stretched really really to
the limit, So the corn will be looking at what
(06:26):
warnings were issued by the authority beforehand, where the message
is about what to do, were timely inaccurate, whether the
emergency services were sufficiently prepared. There are also questions about
rivers breaking their banks, the mitigations measures that might have
been put in place, whether these were adequate, could the
councils have done.
Speaker 1 (06:51):
Generally, What is the point of a coronial.
Speaker 5 (06:55):
Inquiry, Well, like any inquest, I think it seeks to
establish a circumstances around a death, but also, you know,
are there lessons that can be learned from that, what's happened,
how can things be better handled, and you know what
needs to be avoided in the future. In terms of
this sort of event where it's a large scale event,
(07:17):
very complicated, with a lot of agency is involved in
the coordination between them, things happening in real time very quickly,
you know what can be learned from that. I mean,
there may be a whole heap of issues that come
out of that that may help planning for future events.
But that's kind of what the coroner is all about.
Speaker 1 (07:40):
And it's been a couple of years since the events.
Have you been speaking to any locals. How are they
feeling this coming up again? I suppose.
Speaker 5 (07:50):
I haven't had a lot of you know, I mean,
I've mentioned to people that it's back on. They're interesting,
interesting and of course, but I think they see as
part of the process that has to be gone through.
Speaker 1 (08:02):
Who are we likely to hear from over the next
few weeks, So.
Speaker 5 (08:08):
The next two weeks, well, this week anyway that the
mister witnesses mainly sort of fire and emergencies, civil defense people,
from the local councilors, the police. We'll probably hear more
from the families next month. The circumstances around Joseph Whoy's
disappearance will be considered next year.
Speaker 3 (08:33):
More Anna, It now seems for most of us that
we are past the worst of the current weather event.
The review that I announced and to what went wrong
in the first twenty four to fort eight hours is underway.
Bulkiners began the big Auckham clean up the very next
morning after the flood. You've made me proud and humbled
to be your mayor. You've risen to the challenge to
(08:54):
look after your neighbors and your local communities, to leander
helping hand and support our council staff on the ground,
our emergency services and our volunteers have also been magnificent,
in some cases putting themselves at risk. Today, our council
focus moves from the emergency response to provide greater support
to the big Auckhanm cleanup. The big organ cleanup is
(09:17):
being led by communities, community organizations, local boards, local councils,
the private sector and supported by Buckland Council and central government.
So let's show in New Zealand and the world the
strength of all the communities across our region.
Speaker 1 (09:38):
And when it comes to these kind of things, I mean,
the witness lists can be enormous. What's it like sitting
there and hearing the discussions because sometimes it can be
quite monotonous. But it's all a part of the process,
isn't it.
Speaker 5 (09:52):
I think yes, it isn't quite quite other process we've got.
We've got fifteen councils in what is not it? So
fifteen lawyers in a calling that's not not huge. So
there's a lot to go through. There are different organizations
(10:14):
and people who represented who will want, you know, to
question witnesses and things like that. It's it is a
long process. But then things that happen in the judicial
system quite often are And.
Speaker 1 (10:28):
Tell me again, in terms of emergency services, who who
will be representing each one of them? I suppose not
the exact names, but I'm thinking foreign emergency will be there,
no doubt.
Speaker 5 (10:41):
Yes. In fact, we've got, you know, a national commander
from fire emergency here who happened to be the district
commander at the time. And so you know, it can
be people quite high level and.
Speaker 1 (10:56):
Has there been much interest in and around the courthouse.
Speaker 5 (11:00):
Not a great deal at the moment. It may be
different when people know that it's on, but it's mainly
sort of professional people who are who are there today
and or people associated with the organizations that will be called,
and mainly their lawyers. At the moment, as I say,
(11:22):
that's probably around thirty odd people in the courtroom, half
of them half of them are our lawyers.
Speaker 1 (11:28):
Thanks for joining us, Rick, You're welcome. That's it for
this episode of The Front Page. You can read more
about today's stories and extensive news coverage at enzdherld dot
co dot nz. The Front Page is produced by Jane
Ye and Richard Martin, who is also our editor. I'm
(11:50):
Chelsea Daniels, subscribe to the front page on iHeartRadio or
wherever you get your podcasts, and tune in tomorrow for
another look behind the headline.
Speaker 5 (12:00):
It's
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