Napier council was ‘hugely unprepared’ for Cyclone Gabrielle – review

An independent review has highlighted woeful shortcomings in Napier City Council’s response and preparedness for Cyclone Gabrielle, but has commended staff who went above and beyond what was required of them.

The review, prepared by Dr Tracy Hatton of Resilient Organisations Ltd, and released this week, pulls no punches when it comes to identifying deficiencies in the council, which it says was “hugely unprepared for Cyclone Gabrielle in terms of Emergency Management capability”.

In November 2020 Napier suffered substantial flooding in what was called a one-in-100-year flooding event, which led to review in 2021 that painted a sorry picture of disorganisation, delay and an unwillingness by some council staff to get involved.

Hatton said while she commended efforts the council made to address this last year, “it was too little and too late” and ”emergency readiness planning was not institutionalised”, meaning the council “almost wholly reliant on the amazing adaptiveness and willingness of their staff to respond.

“Many of the challenges identified from the 2020 NCC flood response arose in relation to the Cyclone Gabrielle response and are included in this report. Examples include the lack of a common operating platform (a regional issue), insufficient staff training capability, poor management of fatigue among staff, misunderstandings of emergency management structures, resources, recovery, and NCC liaison with local iwi,” Hatton said.

“It was noted by NCC staff that systems and processes were developed as part of the learnings from the 2020 Napier floods, however these were either not known or not used,” she said.

Hatton acknowledged that Cyclone Gabrielle was an extreme event and one of the largest disasters to impact New Zealand in recent times, but said “this is exactly what the emergency management system needs to be ready for, especially given the general consensus that intensity and frequency of extreme weather events are increasing as a result of a warming planet”.

On a positive note Hatton said her numerous interviews had revealed “a strong sense of appreciation for the level of NCC staff response efforts”.

“Staff spoke highly of many going far above and beyond what was expected and/or required of them with the common goal of helping each other and the community in a time of desperate need. The notions of ‘camaraderie’ and being ‘proud’ of staff efforts were emphasised,” she said.

Amongst her findings were:

• The council lacked an appropriate Emergency Operations Centre location for responding to Cyclone Gabrielle with relocation required mid-response when power was lost.
• The lack of role clarity was a major cause of stress for those both directly and partially involved in the response.
• Very few staff involved in NCC’s response had received any training whatsoever in emergency management.
• There were a number of essential roles – including iwi liaison – not adequately filled during NCC’s response.
• There was a lack of understanding of the different functions within Operations and how they work together and the resources available to them led to inefficiencies.
• Despite NCC having business continuity programmes in place prior to the impact of Cyclone Gabrielle, these programmes proved unable to provide clarity over organisational priorities during the response.
• NCC staff expressed disappointment and frustration with a perceived lack of support and coordination from the Emergency Management Group Office, in contrast to their expectations.
• The length of time staff worked across all response areas (i.e., NCC depot, EOC, CDCs) was not only unsustainable, but also unsafe.
• Regarding industrial contamination at Awatoto, there was a lack of clarity around who was responsible for decision-making and the delays caused by attempting to navigate these questions both internally and with external agencies. Some staff involved in the various aspects of this response felt very unsupported and became the public punching bags for decisions they did not support.

Hatton made numerous recommendations. High amongst these was the way in which the council treated staff.

“While acknowledging the significance of the response effort and resource required, NCC must strive to ensure appropriate and safe working conditions for staff. This is imperative both for the short-term response, but also in the long-term in relation to staff wellbeing and retention,” she said.

She said the Coordinated Incident Management System (CIMS) structure had been developed and evolved over time to provide the necessary system, tools, and shared language to assist in coordinated incident responses, and most of the council’s staff did not have practice in operating in this context.

“While they worked incredibly hard, this created a steep learning curve which slowed effective performance. As a first priority, training needs to be undertaken by those identified as having a role in emergency response,” she said.

The council’s community services executive director, Thunes Cloete, welcomed the report’s recommendations.

“The recommendations will help us to improve our preparedness for a range of potential crisis situations,” he said.

“The key recommendations to improve the Council’s readiness for future emergency events include training for staff, greater resourcing, improving the resilience of the city’s infrastructure, and bringing the iwi liaison function into council and improving its resourcing. The Council has recently employed an experienced Emergency Management Officer, who has started creating a work plan based on the recommendations,” Cloete said.

The council has commissioned Resilient Organisation Ltd. to develop a Business Continuity and Crisis Coordination Management Framework to ensure the organisation can operate with minimal impact on critical operations and key services.