Countdown to Chaos: As Aucklanders were desperately seeking safety, officials were silent
Saturday, 28 January 2023
By 4pm flooding had already forced people out of their homes. By 5pm emergency services were receiving hundreds of calls. But at 6pm concert goers were still trekking into Auckland city for a concert. Just hours later, an 80-year-old woman was being rescued from the second storey of her home as Aucklanders struggled to find out where to get help. It was not till 10.18pm that a state of emergency was publicly announced. How were officials, charged with crisis communication, caught on the backfoot? This is how the wettest Auckland day, that would lead to the deaths of at least three, unfolded.
The thick of the storm
Auckland Emergency Management issues no social media alerts for four hours between about 6pm and 10pm. It initially considered whether an emergency needed to be declared at 6pm but opted not to.
Emergency Management Minister Kieran McAnulty early on encourages Aucklanders to follow local official advice - but little to none arrives.
Waka Kotahi Auckland/Northland signs off social media at 7.50pm, saying it won’t be updating its posts. Transport Minister Michael Wood tells it to get back online.
By 9.30pm councillors and ministers publicly plead for more information, and for a state of emergency to be declared. Mayor Wayne Brown says he signed the order at 9.27pm but it wasn’t publicly broadcast till 10.18pm .
**READ MORE:
* More heavy rain for Auckland over Sunday and Monday
* The delicate art of declaring an emergency, according to mayors who've done it
* Flooded homes, streets awash, but hours until an emergency declaration
* Analysis: Wayne Brown appears to have missed what a mayor's job is in a crisis
**
Thursday, January 26
A heavy rain warning is issued for Auckland from 6am Friday until 10pm. Meanwhile Auckland Transport tells Elton John concert goers to plan to drive to the concert. It later walks this back.
Friday, January 27
2.40pm Auckland Transport says limited buses are travelling to the Elton John concert, and “trains aren’t available”. It urges people to leave early, carpool, and be seated by 7pm sharp.It’s been raining throughout the day.
3.52pm MetService says 60mm of rain has fallen an hour, causing surface flooding. There is a severe thunderstorm warning in place.
4pm Suburbs are flooding. Safunga and Seve Uatea say they fled their Kāinga Ora home on Clover Dr, Henderson, at this time, by swimming. The current is so strong they have to pull themselves along by fence posts. Wayne Brown will later say he is at his council desk at this time and remains there the rest of the night.
4.30pm Police issue a warning to drivers as bad weather pummels the city. There is significant flooding on the North Shore and out west.
5pm Auckland Emergency Management controller Andrew Clark says from this time it was considering whether to ask for an emergency to be declared. Emergency organisations are speaking to each other.
5.07pm Fire and Emergency has 400 emergency calls. It prioritises people who are in danger. It advises people with flooded homes to get stuff off the floor, and to only call 111 in an emergency.
5.20pm The roads around the Brynderwyns close and diversions are in place due to a slip. Police ask drivers to take care.
5.45pm Auckland Emergency Management posts on Facebook amid worsening weather, giving advice, saying it will stay in touch. “Stay safe.” The post builds 342 comments, none of which appear to be responded to. It doesn’t post again on Facebook until 10.01pm.
5.50pm MetService issues a severe thunderstorm warning for Auckland city, Kaipara, Waitakere, Rodney, Gulf and Albany. They’re expected to be accompanied by torrential rain.
5.52pm Emergency Management minister Kieran McAnulty confirms what most already know - heavy rain has hit, “the impacts are being managed locally… I’d urge people to follow the advice of their local authorities.”
5.50pm Flooding on the northern motorway is particularly bad. Waka Kotahi tweets that flooding was blocking southbound lanes at Greville Rd.
5.53pm MetService issues another severe thunderstorm warning.
5.55pm Waka Kotahi tweets that flooding on SH1’s northern motorway between Northcote and Esmonde Rd was causing delays.
6pm Auckland Emergency Management makes a call not to ask for an emergency declaration. Andrew Clark, controller, later says, “When we considered around 6pm, should we ask for this? We didn’t feel at this time it was needed.”
6.10pm Diversions around the Brynderwyns are now closed, too, due to severe flooding on SH12.
6.11-6.15pm Auckland Emergency Management tweets that severe weather is particularly affecting north, north-west, and west Auckland; “We’re working with emergency services to establish what help is needed on the ground. If it’s safe, stay home, call 111 if your life is at risk, don’t drive through floodwaters. We will continue to provide updates.”
It doesn’t appear to tweet again until 10.04pm.
6.21pm Fire and Emergency has by now had 500 calls for help.
7pm Shortly after 7pm organisers call off the Elton John concert, at the exact time fans were told to arrive.
7.15pm Waka Kotahi sends a “final update” on the Brynderwyns route, asking people to check its website for more information.
7.16pm Auckland Transport says it’s helping Elton fans get home by redirecting special buses. “We’re asking for everyone’s patience.” It doesn’t appear to tweet again until 9.27pm. There are chaotic scenes as people try to leave Mount Smart stadium, with reports of cars floating down streets and people u-turning on motorways to avoid flooding.
7.25pm A body is found in Wairau Valley.
7.30pm Waka Kotahi tweets a “final update”, saying parts of the northern motorway were closed, directing people to its website.
7.35pm A landslide brings down a house in Remuera. One person is missing – and is later found dead.
7.40pm Waka Kotahi tweets another motorway update.
7.50pm Waka Kotahi sends its last tweet for several hours - it’s a “final update” about SH1’s southern motorway. “Closed from Market Rd off ramp northbound.”
There are no more tweets from Waka Kotahi until 10.30pm.
7.55pm Wayne Brown tells RNZ, “We just need the rain to stop, that’s the main issue”.
8pm The northern motorway is submerged. Images emerge of flooded buses trying to drive with passengers in knee-high muddy water. Severe flooding had also closed the Waterview tunnel and surrounding motorway.
8.24pm 1000 emergency calls have been made to Fire and Emergency, which pleads for people to stay home and only call with life-threatening requests. People are trapped in cars, on roofs, and in houses. The Defence Force is called to assist by Fire and Emergency. By the next morning it would estimate it had received 2000 calls.
8.30pm Lifeguards rescue69 people from workplaces on the North Shore using Inflatable Rescue Boats.
8.37pm Flights are disrupted after a landing aircraft breaks a bunch of runway lights at Auckland Airport. It will eventually close the airport to flights and passengers. Some sleep at the airport as the car park is flooded.
8.42pm Pakn’Save Glenfield is inundated with water, with shelving breached. Four supermarkets across the region would have to close.
9pm Six family members are rescued from rising floodwaters at their property in Helensville, with lifeguards pulling them from their window, including a child, and onto two rescue boats. An 80-year-old woman was rescued from the second floor of her home.
9.01pm Amid ongoing silence from Waka KotahiMichael Wood instructs NZTA to reopen its communication channels. “The best source of information is [Civil Defence Emergency Management] but there also needs to be clear comms from [Waka Kotahi],” he tweets.
9.14pm Wood adds, “The event is extremely serious. Ministers and MPs are coordinating. A formal declaration sits with the mayor.”
9.27pm Auckland Transport begins tweeting again - two hours after its last message - advising people to stay home amid road closures and public transport cancellations. It notes closures from half an hour earlier that hadn’t been communicated.
9.27pm This is the time PM Chris Hipkins will later say a state of emergency was declared by Mayor Wayne Brown, at the behest of emergency services, Brown will say minutes earlier. This isn’t immediately communicated.
9.30pm Auckland Airport tells people to stay away, as photos emerge of significant flooding inside the international terminal.
9.30pm Councillor Richard Hills criticises official communications from Civil Defence, “They haven’t updated their social media in over 3 hours.”
9.31pm MetService issues a ‘red warning’ for Auckland, until 3am. The city has already seen in one day three times the monthly average rain fall, and heavy rain is due overnight.
9.48pm: Councillor Richard Hills calls for a state of emergency to be declared.
9.50pm: Councillor Josephine Bartley tells Stuff that Mayor Wayne Brown has declared an emergency, although Brown, Auckland Council and Auckland Emergency Management have not confirmed this themselves.
9.56pmNational leader Christopher Luxon urges Brown to declare a civil emergency. “This will give our brilliant emergency response teams the tools they need to respond. High tide hits after midnight and we need a list of evacuation centres for folk to head to.”
9.57pm Auckland deputy mayor Desley Simpson tells TodayFM the mayor has signed a declaration of a state of emergency. Brown is yet to comment.
10.04pm Auckland Emergency Management starts tweeting again, a thread about opening a shelter in Kelston, asking people to stay with family if they can, and to take essential items with them.
10.14pm Civil Defence Minister Kieran McAnulty says Brown has declared a state of emergency. Brown is yet to comment. McAnulty says the National Emergency Management Agency is ready to send resources from across the country to help Auckland.
10.15pm A man is swept away in floodwaters at rural Onewhero.
10.18pm Auckland Emergency Management confirms a state of emergency has been declared.
10.41pm PM Chris Hipkins says the flooding is an “extraordinary set of circumstances” and the Government is “ready to assist”.
11.14pm: Wayne Brown hosts an impromptu press conference, his first since the flooding started. Only a few reporters were invited. Entire news organisations, including Stuff, aren’t told.
11.15pm. Civil Defence tweets a picture of the mayor signing off the declaration of emergency. It directs people to the website OurAuckland.co.nz for more information.
11.43pm Chris Hipkins asks for public updates to increase. The Beehive Bunker is being prepared for emergency management. The basement is the national coordination centre for emergency responses.
12am: Rescuers are directed to a hypothermic man screaming for help from his vehicle, which was trapped by floodwater and starting to float.
12.30am: Hipkins and McAnulty bunker down in the Beehive basement, alongside Defence, emergency services and Civil Defence staff.
12.38am A second body is found in Wairau Valley.
12.49am Civil Defence directs people to further shelters on the North Shore and Randwick Park.
1am 249mm of rain has fallen in Auckland (airport meter) and Auckland Airport registers its wettest day since 1985.
1.30am: Hipkins and McAnulty hold their first press conference on the flooding. Hipkins warns Auckland to “brace for more rain”.
The rain continues to fall.