A Hawke's Bay resident says "nothing's changed" after the latest report finding flaws in the emergency response to Cyclone Gabrielle.
An internal report into the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) response to Cyclone Gabrielle, released yesterday, revealed significant shortcomings in preparedness and execution.
The report highlighted insufficiently trained staff and a lack of specialised skills as issues.
NEMA struggled to maintain a 24-hour shift due to staffing issues, crucial information was not centralised, and the agency's headquarters lacked adequate infrastructure with poor Wi-Fi and cell coverage among the problems.
NEMA's review identified 19 lessons to be learned and emphasised the need for surge capacity in staffing, standardised protocols across agencies, and addressing structural limitations.
The agency admitted its systems were geared for short-term responses, not prolonged emergencies like Cyclone Gabrielle.
An IT outage during the cyclone left the agency disconnected for hours, hampering communication and coordination efforts.
Hawke's Bay resident Gareth Jones was house-sitting in Esk Valley with friend Susan Caccioppoli when the cyclone stuck.
As flood water raged through the valley, they were left with no evacuation notices and were swept away in flood waters.
Clinging together for two kilometres, tragically the pair were separated by the torrent. Susan was swept away.
1News spoke to Jones in the place where he last saw Susan.
He expressed concern over authorities' delayed warning.
"It's strange when you're here now because it's so tranquil now and it was hell on earth being here with the water going through.
"Sue clutched on to me as tightly as she could for nearly two kilometres until I was dragged under the water and that's when I lost her," Jones said.
The report is just the latest to paint a bleak picture of authorities' response during the cyclone.
"Nothing's changed, and if we were faced with a cyclone again next week, what would we do differently?
"Or is there going to be more needless loss of life through lack of communication, lack of warning and lack of evacuation?" Jones said.
NEMA acting chief executive Jenna Rogers pledged to improve readiness for future events.
"Our heart goes out to them and actually, I want to take this opportunity to acknowledge and recognise the whānau of those 15 people who tragically lost their lives," Rogers said.
"Our agency is still fairly new, five years in and we had a fairly new workforce at the time and we've already doubled down on our training for all of our people.
"It's not ideal for us to ever lose IT or any ICT. Certainly that's a challenge for us and it's an area of focus not only for our response but also for the Government inquiry. What is a fit for purpose National Crisis Management Centre?
"What does it look like? What does it need to enable an effective response?"
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