I have read and taken on board the findings of the review into Auckland’s flood response on 27 January. As an organisation, we accept the recommendations Mike Bush and his team have put forward.
The review quite rightly pointed out areas of our response that we didn’t get right that night, and we are absolutely committed to doing better in the future. Our response was not what it should have been, Aucklanders deserved better, and for that, I’m sorry. I want to acknowledge everyone impacted by the unprecedented weather events and those whose homes and businesses were inundated by flood waters that evening. My thoughts continue to go out to the whānau and friends of those who lost their lives.
We cannot ignore the fact that this event was unprecedented. The size and scale of it, its unexpected intensity, and the complexity of gathering a clear picture of what was unfolding, especially in the first 12 hours, made this event unlike anything we have experienced before. And, as the review clearly said, we know we were not as well prepared for it as we could have been.
I want to recognise the work of Auckland Emergency Management and council staff, who worked tirelessly, and with compassion and professionalism, throughout that response and then again through Cyclone Gabrielle.
I can confidently say that while there is still work to do around our processes and systems and being much better prepared for events of the size and scale we saw on 27 January, we did immediately take on some learnings and applied those to how we responded to the cyclone just two weeks later.
We are absolutely committed to ensuring Aucklanders are prepared for an emergency of any size or scale, and being ready to respond when the worst happens.
Our intention is to act on the recommendations in the report and we are working with urgency on an implementation plan, to be completed by mid-May.
We have a collective responsibility to implement the recommendations and demonstrate what we’ve learned through action. By doing that, we hope to give Aucklanders the confidence they deserve to have in our emergency management capability.
