The latest report on Hawke's Bay's flood protections during Cyclone Gabrielle will be presented to the regional council this morning. Photo: RNZ / Jimmy Ellingham
A long awaited report into the Hawke's Bay Regional Council's flood protections during last year's Cyclone Gabrielle will be released later this morning.
The Independent Flood Review - a panel of three - has for the past 12 months been investigating the circumstances and factors that resulted in thousands of homes flooding in Hawke's Bay, and the deaths of eight people.
It's expected to reveal more failings from local government in its ability to prepare for, and respond to, extreme weather events.
Two previous inquiries confirmed what residents had experienced during the cyclone: a lack of action from officials who didn't evacuate them in time, leaving hundreds stranded on roof tops fearing for their lives.
A nation-wide inquiry - led by former Governor-General Sir Jerry Mateparae - was published in April. It found the country is not ready to respond to large-scale emergencies and that in some places the system failed completely, as it did not enable people to properly prepare or respond to the disaster around them.
"Many communities and CDEM [Civil Defence Emergency Management] agencies were not adequately prepared, communication and warnings were non-existent or insufficient, and the capability and capacity of people and infrastructure was overestimated or lacking."
Communities told the inquiry they felt completely let down by Civil Defence.
Another investigation into the Hawke's Bay's Civil Defence response to Cyclone Gabrielle, headed up by former police commissioner Mike Bush, found a lack of capability within the response and called for a complete overhaul of the system.
"It was absolutely clear that the severity, speed and scale of this disaster quite simply overwhelmed the officials involved in that response," he said.
This latest report, which is being presented to the regional council this morning, is focussed on its role in the cyclone's flooding. The review includes everything from flood protections, such as stopbank systems, to flood forecasting and mapping, housing planning decisions, and the telemetry that measures river levels and should trigger evacuation warnings.
Residents are hoping the review results in major changes at the council, as they have lost all trust in officials and the systems they rely on to make decisions around the public's safety.
It comes as the Hawke's Bay Regional Council faces legal action over last month's flooding of 400 properties in Wairoa, when the river bar was not cleared in time.
