Wairoa mayor Craig Little had doubled down on his decision to not declare a local state of emergency during Cyclone Vaianu, saying it was unnecessary and risked causing panic.
Cyclone Vaianu tore through parts of the North Island's East Coast over the weekend, causing evacuations and leaving thousands without power across the Bay of Plenty, Waikato and Hawke's Bay.
Little refused to join other Hawke's Bay councils in declaring a local state of emergency ahead of the severe weather, telling Local Democracy Reporting yesterday that "we're becoming woke as a country when it comes to states of emergency".
Speaking to RNZ’s Morning Report today, Little said calling a state of emergency should be "the last tool in the toolbox to use, not the first".
“I don’t know why they think if you call a state of emergency, all of a sudden some magical event will happen for you and it unlocks everything," Little said.
"You do not need a state of emergency to be prepared. And we were prepared.
"Our emergency operating service was stood up, all our services including and people affected were well aware of what was going on."
He said information received ahead of the severe weather event suggested conditions would "only bring high swells and high wind" and did not justify a state of emergency for the region.
"We just didn't require it. There were some areas that did require it, like a lot of the areas that were predicted to be hit hard. We weren't predicted to be hit hard."
"Don’t forget, you can call a state of emergency at any time if it gets worse."
Little reiterated he was confident that Wairoa was safe during Vaianu and said he would have called a state of emergency if was needed.
"We didn't want to panic people if it wasn't necessary."
Ten states of emergency were actioned during Cyclone Vaianu.
The number of states of emergency had roughly quadrupled the total number issued across New Zealand over the past decade.
Prime minister Christopher Luxon responded to Little's comments during his address to media yesterday, saying he'd "happily wear a woke label if it means we didn't lose anyone's lives".
"I love Craig, I've spent a lot of time with him given he's had some major weather events in Wairoa over the last few years," Luxon said.
"This was a significant event with 10 local states of emergency actioned. In a number of regions there were road closures, power outages and flooding.
"I'd sooner be prepared than talking to you about an event that we were underprepared fo"r.
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