Flood Fallout Local politicians take aim at emergency-plan mess

The confusing state of emergency management in Auckland and locally has drawn fire from Devonport-Takapuna Local Board members.

Instead of communities being expected to come up with their own plans, more help should come from council’s specialist arm, Auckland Emergency Management (AEM), they say.

“What we’ve experienced is that AEM is not working with us,” board chair Toni van Tonder said at a board workshop last week. Communications needed to be clearer and from not so many different directions.

Member Mel Powell said the public did not understand the difference between the former Civil Defence structure and AEM. “There’s so much confusion, so some kind of directive of where we all sit would be really valuable.”

In the void, community members had stepped up and mucked in during recent emergencies.

“I’d like to see more pre-determined plans, adjusted and adapted locally,” said board dep- uty chair and business leader Terence Harpur.

Board member George Wood said there was a disconnect between locals and the city, with people, including himself, unsure about roles since the restructuring, set off by national changes in 2019.

Similar feedback was heard at an earlier public meeting, where Takapuna Residents’ Association president Steven Salt said too much was expected of residents. Powell told that meeting AEM had been nowhere to be seen when floods hit Sunnynook in January.

The local board was briefed at the workshop by Auckland North Community and Development (Ancad), the capacity-building group it tasked and funded in 2020 three years ago with helping draw up suburb-by-suburb emergency plans.

The plans mostly remain works in progress, but the board’s frustration was mostly aimed at organisations further up the chain than Ancad.

Harpur said he was disappointed AEM’s head of resilience for community and business, Melanie Hutton, was not present. Instead, Auckland Council was represented by advisor Michael Alofa who conceded it would have been helpful for AEM to attend.

He committed to take the board’s views back to AEM “for offline discussions”.

Ancad chair Fiona Brennan, and its community resilience co-ordinator Madison O’Dwyer ,did their best to update the board on local plan writing. Efforts are being made to use the recently completed Devonport document as a starter template for groups in Takapuna-Hauraki, who were to hold another meeting this week.

The Milford Residents Association was proving difficult to engage, having spent considerable time in the past on now shelved plans, O’Dwyer reported. Sunnynook’s four-page plan had been finished last year.

Auckland Council has launched an inquiry into the flood response, which will give the board another opportunity to give its views.

Power of advertising proven in deluge

Tanya Wheeler (left) got soaked putting up billboards for her forthcoming play, but was also able to get creative with one of them to save her house from the same fate.

During the Auckland Anniversary Weekend floods, the roof of Wheeler’s home in Greenhithe began leaking.

Without tarpaulins at hand, she dug into a pile of vinyl posters she had yet to erect to advertise her show. The makeshift arrangement saved her home from more serious damage.

Wheeler and her co-producer, Kris Jack, then spent the weekend getting soaked like “drowned rats” putting up the billboards for the play, My Year with Lorraine , which opens at the PumpHouse Theatre in Takapuna next week.

• Play preview, page 21