Cyclone Gabrielle

Over the last several days large swathes of the North Island have been hit by Cyclone Gabrielle, with Auckland, the Coromandel, Hawke's Bay and Tairāwhiti especially badly hit. So far there's been nine deaths (two of them volunteer firemen in Muriwai, one a small child) and more are expected to have occurred - they can only be counted once communications are back up and running and the missing are accounted for as safe and sound, or lost but bodies found.

Roads have been washed out and slipped away, river banks and flood banks have been breached, bridges have been washed away by the sheer force of flooded rivers carrying slash (detritus from forestry operations).

The Hawke's Bay has scenes of utter devastation: flood water, silt and slash  up to roof level on homes and farm buildings, orchards totally flooded, large stock losses, people rescued by helicopter from the roofs of their homes. 

There are many rivers heading to the sea, and the bridges have been washed away, the river mouths are awash with slash, and the rivers are brown with silt.

The clean up bill is going to be huge and, in many cases, will require houses to be knocked down and rebuilt. Many of them should not be rebuilt in the same place - too many houses built in vulnerable areas, and with climate change well and truly upon us, these kind of weather events are increasing in frequency - it's less than 3 weeks since Auckland and the Coromandel were last hit by extreme rainfall. 

Because of the terrain, our roading system is close to the sea in many places, crosses rivers, and follows the contours of hills and is carved out of the hillsides. All of these places are vulnerable, the roads on hillsides in particular, because the banks below and above are not well enough reinforced or are too steep to support tree growth that would hold the bank in place.

Over the last year or so there has been deep opposition (fomented by right wing media, opposition parties who build on [white] people's fear of sharing decision-making with Māori) to the government's Three Waters legislation that focuses on safety of potable water, storm water and sewage. 

This cyclone is a clear message that the government is right to be focused on these utilities - currently none of our stormwater systems are adequate to deal with the level of rainfall we have had recently and can expect more of a similar level frequently in the future. I read recently, after the last large Auckland and Coromandel storm a few weeks ago, that we now need stormwater systems that match Singapore's, i.e. very large diameter pipes that will cope with monsoon rains.

We also need our local councils and regional councils to work together with the relevant government agencies to streamline the individual consenting processes and decision-making so re-building can commence. We also need some concerted study of the better places to be building homes so that, while people are rehoused quickly in temporary homes (as was done after the Christchurch and Kaikoura earthquakes), long term solutions can be identified and put in place. We need long term solutions because if we allow re-building to occur where it was a week ago, we will be facing the same problem next year or in six months' time...

And we need legislation to require forestry companies to effectively clear slash from the supposedly clear felled sites rather than waiting for the weather to carry it away, without regard for the damage caused.

Thankfully we have a Labour Government which is focused on the long term rather than the short term solutions that the National party would prefer...