A new investigation has revealed Hawke's Bay Regional Council's flood protection infrastructure is not fit for purpose.
An independent review's found there was a lack of Regional Council planning and preparedness for a flood that breached stopbanks, like in Cyclone Gabrielle.
Risk was underestimated in some areas, and historic large floods were not considered.
Wairoa mayor Craig Little says this is very worrying.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
A third damning report of Hawk's Bay Regional Council's handling
of Cyclone Gabriella has just landed today. It's found the
council was massively underprepared for potential flooding, underestimated risk, didn't
consider what had happened in the past with large floods
in order to prepare for future floods. The report also
asks why new housing was built in flood prone areas
that the cyclos or hundreds of homes flooded and eight
(00:21):
people killed by the way in the region last February.
Craig Little is the mayor of wird Or and with
us now, hey Craig.
Speaker 2 (00:29):
How you going Very well?
Speaker 1 (00:30):
Thank you, Craig. It just feels like a series of
stuff ups, right, not just one, but like all along
the way they just kept on stuffing up. When we
got to the point where eight people.
Speaker 2 (00:36):
Died, yeah, it's a bit of a worry. You just
sort of start thinking, well, gosh, we need to look
at what's going on here.
Speaker 1 (00:43):
So the thing, one of the things that surprised me
the most is that they have a flood risk place.
So it was a floodplain like the head of Tongue
Planes and they haven't got any evacuation plans. Did that
surprise you?
Speaker 2 (00:54):
Look, I don't know much about the Hawks Bay group
of my job's wire Or, but look, I'm not surprised
all because there's a lot of things that we didn't
have any river protection work done before those cycling Gabriel
saw it done now. So yeah, we need to actually
go back to what our business as usual work is,
I think, rather than doing stuff that maybe isn't like
(01:15):
what well, we need to go back to the fundamentals
of and one of the things is around flood protection,
looking after and ensuring people don't end up like Wireor
did the other day.
Speaker 1 (01:27):
But are you saying that the council's being distracted by
other stuff other than its basic jobs.
Speaker 2 (01:33):
Well, I think they probably haven't really concentrated on what
they should be doing. Look, it's my view only. I
just think, you know, simple things like wild Mouth was
just open it on time and I talk the locals.
Never happened.
Speaker 1 (01:50):
So do these tasks if they're not going to do
them properly. And they clearly are not going to Craig
because we had a flood last year in February and
then we had a flood just a few weeks ago
again and the same kind of repeat of stuff is
happening again. They're not going to do the job properly.
Do we take it off them and give it to
somebody else?
Speaker 2 (02:05):
Well, I guess that's the government decision to do. But look,
we're not happy with it because we feel like we're
not getting listened. We're small part of Hawk's Bay, but
I think we're as equal as everybody else, and we
don't feel we are. And probably parts of Hawk's Bay,
there's no secret of it. They're not happy as well.
So if I was running that counsel, and I'm not,
I'd be thinking how can we make this better? And
(02:27):
this is a real damning report. It's a hard hitting report,
but guess what. All those recommendations are business as usual
stuff and they should be thinking, well, actually, we may
not have got it right here.
Speaker 1 (02:37):
Hey, so you've gotten I mean, there's a false review
coming out, but it's a different review. It's a review
into what happened with the flooding that happened last month
with you guys, where are you at with that?
Speaker 2 (02:47):
Okay, So Mike Bush is doing that, and I have
pretty full conscidence of me did a wonderful report on
the civil defense stuff and whether they whether all those
recommendations were adopted on sure that and time will tells
for his report, because I think, you know, if they
weren't adopted, well they should have been adopted and it
would have made Wire a lot bit of place under
(03:08):
a state of emergency. But yeah, it's just another one.
You know why I hate wasting money, you know, doing
all these reviews and reports and things like that. But
they've got to be done because obviously we're doing those
because we're not confident what's happening.
Speaker 1 (03:23):
Yeah, telling them how to do their jobs. Craig, thank
you very much, appreciate it. Craig, A little wider was
meth For more from Hither Duplessy Allen Drive.
Speaker 2 (03:30):
Listen live to news talks.
Speaker 1 (03:31):
It'd be from four pm weekdays, or follow the podcast
on iHeartRadio
A third damning report of Hawk's Bay Regional Council's handling
of Cyclone Gabriella has just landed today. It's found the
council was massively underprepared for potential flooding, underestimated risk, didn't
consider what had happened in the past with large floods
in order to prepare for future floods. The report also
asks why new housing was built in flood prone areas
that the cyclos or hundreds of homes flooded and eight
(00:21):
people killed by the way in the region last February.
Craig Little is the mayor of wird Or and with
us now, hey Craig.
Speaker 2 (00:29):
How you going Very well?
Speaker 1 (00:30):
Thank you, Craig. It just feels like a series of
stuff ups, right, not just one, but like all along
the way they just kept on stuffing up. When we
got to the point where eight people.
Speaker 2 (00:36):
Died, yeah, it's a bit of a worry. You just
sort of start thinking, well, gosh, we need to look
at what's going on here.
Speaker 1 (00:43):
So the thing, one of the things that surprised me
the most is that they have a flood risk place.
So it was a floodplain like the head of Tongue
Planes and they haven't got any evacuation plans. Did that
surprise you?
Speaker 2 (00:54):
Look, I don't know much about the Hawks Bay group
of my job's wire Or, but look, I'm not surprised
all because there's a lot of things that we didn't
have any river protection work done before those cycling Gabriel
saw it done now. So yeah, we need to actually
go back to what our business as usual work is,
I think, rather than doing stuff that maybe isn't like
(01:15):
what well, we need to go back to the fundamentals
of and one of the things is around flood protection,
looking after and ensuring people don't end up like Wireor
did the other day.
Speaker 1 (01:27):
But are you saying that the council's being distracted by
other stuff other than its basic jobs.
Speaker 2 (01:33):
Well, I think they probably haven't really concentrated on what
they should be doing. Look, it's my view only. I
just think, you know, simple things like wild Mouth was
just open it on time and I talk the locals.
Never happened.
Speaker 1 (01:50):
So do these tasks if they're not going to do
them properly. And they clearly are not going to Craig
because we had a flood last year in February and
then we had a flood just a few weeks ago
again and the same kind of repeat of stuff is
happening again. They're not going to do the job properly.
Do we take it off them and give it to
somebody else?
Speaker 2 (02:05):
Well, I guess that's the government decision to do. But look,
we're not happy with it because we feel like we're
not getting listened. We're small part of Hawk's Bay, but
I think we're as equal as everybody else, and we
don't feel we are. And probably parts of Hawk's Bay,
there's no secret of it. They're not happy as well.
So if I was running that counsel, and I'm not,
I'd be thinking how can we make this better? And
(02:27):
this is a real damning report. It's a hard hitting report,
but guess what. All those recommendations are business as usual
stuff and they should be thinking, well, actually, we may
not have got it right here.
Speaker 1 (02:37):
Hey, so you've gotten I mean, there's a false review
coming out, but it's a different review. It's a review
into what happened with the flooding that happened last month
with you guys, where are you at with that?
Speaker 2 (02:47):
Okay, So Mike Bush is doing that, and I have
pretty full conscidence of me did a wonderful report on
the civil defense stuff and whether they whether all those
recommendations were adopted on sure that and time will tells
for his report, because I think, you know, if they
weren't adopted, well they should have been adopted and it
would have made Wire a lot bit of place under
(03:08):
a state of emergency. But yeah, it's just another one.
You know why I hate wasting money, you know, doing
all these reviews and reports and things like that. But
they've got to be done because obviously we're doing those
because we're not confident what's happening.
Speaker 1 (03:23):
Yeah, telling them how to do their jobs. Craig, thank
you very much, appreciate it. Craig, A little wider was
meth For more from Hither Duplessy Allen Drive.
Speaker 2 (03:30):
Listen live to news talks.
Speaker 1 (03:31):
It'd be from four pm weekdays, or follow the podcast
on iHeartRadio
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