Auckland Council Learnings. Disaster Recovery and Community Restoration. Ep.18 Precipice Podcast.

Mace Ward from Auckland Council joins me in this episode. Mace was the General Manager of Group Recovery at the time of Cyclone Gabrielle and a ‘group controller’ in the lead up to the cyclone. 

Mace talks about his role in the recovery and the learnings and changes that have been put in place by Auckland Council since the cyclone

He unpacks the categorisation process of houses in Muriwai, valuations, submissions, pay outs and settlements for red stickered home owners and the dispute process. I asked Mace if Auckland Council expects to respond better to future weather events and what’s been put in place within the council and the government around emergency management. 

Mace shares what he thinks Muriwai did really well, a message to our community and advice for other communities going through a similar event

Precipice launched on July 20th 2026. 3 seasons will be released across 4 weeks and then the full series of 26 episodes will be available for you to listen to at your leisure.

Season 1: Cyclone Gabrielle Hits Muriwai 

Season 2: Disaster Recovery and Community Restoration                     

Season 3: Community Initiatives after a Cyclone

Listen on You Tube  https://www.youtube.com/@precipicepodcast

Follow on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/precipicepodcast

Hosted and produced by Mandy Jakich. Commissioned and funded by Muriwai Community Association, supported by the Auckland Council Recovery Office.

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:33

I don't think you can either be absolutely prepared to note, but you can actually be more prepared than we were at that time and that's been acknowledged.

Mandy 0:43

The impact, the categorization process of houses and middle eye, valuations, submissions, payouts, and settlements for rent to good home owners and the dispute process.

SPEAKER_01 0:55

And did we get it perfect? I'm sure people would say no. But certainly trying to understand, put ourselves in the shoes of those people who are impacted. And just that building that trust and openness and honesty about what we could do when we were likely to be able to respond was really critical.

Mandy 1:18

I asked MATES at Open Council expects to respond future to future with their events and what's been put in place within the council and the government around emergency management. Most years, what do you think Middle Eye did really well and a message to our community and advice for other communities going through a similar event?

SPEAKER_01 1:56

I'm the group or general manager of group recovery across Auckland Council. And this was a program that was uh set up to focus on the recovery from the 2023 North Island weather events of both the uh the the anniversary weekend floods um and also Cyclone Gabrielle, and then we had a number of other events that followed a tornado in um East Tarmaky, um affecting 125 homes and floods in May of 2023 as well, um, and then really responding to central governments a proposal around um how we how we respond to those events together with um the Hawks Bay um and other regions uh around the country.

Mandy 2:46

And how did you um initially make contact with the Midwai community?

SPEAKER_01 2:53

Um so my role started it uh from the 29th of or 28th of uh January um from being asked to come in um to to Auckland Council and meet with the mayor. Um but then in Cyclone Gabriel I had a role as as the controller, or what's known as the group controller and lead up to Cyclone Gabriel. We knew, you know, as the the region did, that it was likely we would be impacted by that um subtropical cyclone that formed in the Coral Sea. We had some pre-warning. What we didn't know, of course, is exactly where, um, when and the veracity of of what occurred on on that night, um, or the tragedy that might unfold as well. Um so that's that was a significant impact. But from 1.30 in the morning, um I came back in on the 14th of February um into the emergency coordination centre um and then was involved from then on. Working particularly with those communities that were most impacted. And Midiway was obviously a community that was impacted um severely uh with the tragedy of a loss of life of first responders, but also people's homes, the place they should, places they should feel safe in being lost, um, and the tr that tragedy um of the loss of property and the loss of where people lived, worked, and played, if you like. Um, and a community that was was um loved by by Aucklanders uh with a regional park visited by you know over a million people every year, um, a place that people had made their homes, a place that people had a deep um connection with. Uh so our first first uh reaction with the community was in a really raw meeting of understanding what their needs were, um, and there was um a release, I guess, of of that trauma.

Mandy 5:02

So that that meeting was about three or four days after the event. And is it right that you asked the community or somebody asked the community to put questions together? That was one thing that upset people that the group of people from the council weren't quite prepared with the answers to those questions at that early stage.

SPEAKER_01 5:23

Yeah, there's two two things. I guess we had real really quite strong interactions at immediately following. So, you know, that that morning um when there were people in the middle, I surf club and then having to evacuate, as well as also unaccounted for first responders and emergency response. Uh, but yes, that first all community meeting, um uh that uncertainty that exists um is quite quite difficult for a community um to grapple with of not knowing what the future might hold. And that's one of the key learnings is um around recoveries and responses, you don't always have the answers. Um and the community doesn't have those answers either. So having the right conditions for community, for community to get together and think about what those are in the future, um, and the council to be open, or people in authority, if you like, um, to be open and honest about that when you don't know what the future looks like. Um and and that's that's confronting um and for everyone. Um and I think in the case of Muriwe, you know, where we had a cordon around Mirua, we were um because of of the risks um and we had ongoing landslip risk for quite a long time, but we also um had significant risk of um people's homes being evacuated and and security risks um and being respectful about what had occurred in that community.

Mandy 7:00

Do you feel like it was um maybe a little bit too early? Or, you know, are there learnings that you've taken away from that that you might apply next time if it happens?

SPEAKER_01 7:11

Yeah, um and without being trite, we are wanting to leave um some artifacts from this recovery from 2023 in terms of a playbook, if you like. So, what's the toolkit that people can lean into? And we'll be leaving some things in place in terms of capability and capacity in the council and Auckland Emergency Management, but more broadly that can people who can respond. And were we unprepared as a council for this type of event? Um, I don't think if you can ever be absolutely prepared, you know, but you can actually be more prepared than we were at that time, and that's been acknowledged. Um and and have our community more prepared as well. There was a quite a bit of work done in 2014 where the community response plan and risks were known, but that wasn't kept alive, um, if you like. That wasn't kept warm. Um, so those those are the significant sort of learnings of what is the playbook, having the right people. Um, it's not knowing the people in the community who are able to respond to that. But many of those people as well were were traumatized, you know. Phelan um Perry, who was the local board member, the chief firefighter, he was wearing a lot of hats and and had suffered a significant um shock in terms of people um who had lost their lives. Um and he was there on that night. So we what we did see though out of that trauma was people in the community emerging as leaders, um, and people in the council emerging as leaders as well, um, taking on that leadership role. How do we work our way through this? How do we make sure that um that you know we treat people with respect, we're open and honest, um, we really lean into understanding what what occurred here, but you know, what's the future? People need certainty. It's pretty difficult if you've lost your North Star, if you like, of your home. Um, and you're having to live with that uncertainty is so so difficult. And as a as a community, what was the future for Midiway?

Mandy 9:28

Can you explain your exact role and and what you were hoping to achieve and the team that you built around you?

SPEAKER_01 9:36

Yeah, so that initial phase was very much about what's termed response of you know, how do you make things safe? How do we learn and understand what's occurred? But moving into the recovery phase, um, that's where we could really focus on the community. So um I was asked to set up a team for the recovery phase across across Auckland. So we you know, we had a number of um really highly impacted communities across Auckland. How how would we respond in recovery? Um and we we developed a number of programs across that across that team, and one was community and social recovery. So, how do we go into the community and understand um what what their priorities are, um how we might respond. The natural built environment is the obvious one. The other key program is what occurred, how do we repair things in terms of roads and up and infrastructure? Um, but where is it going to be um unsafe and where is it going to be safe to rebuild in a community? And then there was a program around what the economic impacts were. And that was um probably light touch um when we were doing that with government agencies as well, but really understanding what the economic impacts were. Um, and then Māori participation and partnership where IWI were impacted. So um IWI having a role in Midiway was critical in in terms of those impacts as well. But importantly, there was also um a relationship into central government. Um, so what you know, what is our response? Um, how was central government going to respond? Um, this was a bit of a bellwether for climate adaptation and and a period we were entering of an unstable climate where we were going to see impacts um across yeah, across the region and across the country. And significantly, um, you know, the Hawks Bay had also suffered a significant um tragedy, um, as well as Gizbon Tirafati, um, parts of the Bay of Plenty, although not as extreme. Um, but certainly Gizbon Tirafati and those those communities like Wairoa, um, Hastings, um, the Esk Valley, how could we work with central government to ensure that there was support coming back into Tamaki Makoto, but yeah, specifically um also Midiway? Yeah, so my role was uh very much about you know taking a helicopter view, if you like, um, of looking across the region, but also um, but significantly we knew there were priority communities. So we had some priority communities where we knew we needed to take a more deliberate approach um and having people uh taking a focus. And Midiway was one of those communities where you know there was a clear need for uh more support, um, and the impacts were were significant. Uh so understanding that natural environment, what were the what what was the current state, what was the likely future state, um uh was was important. So um an area-based study of the geotechnical um risks and hazards was something we really focused on. And and Ross Roberts, our chief engineer, um we built a team within the recovery office that I led um around um the geotechnical um response to that. Um and as things emerged very quickly was what became known as categorization. But we knew we'd you know, we'd done placarding um of or stickering, if you like, of over seven and a half thousand properties. Um significantly um six, six hundred over six hundred, almost seven hundred of those were red-stickered. Um those had that had connotations with you know the tragedy of the Christchurch earthquake of red zones. Um so the mixing up of of um or the assumptions rather that are made around red stickering is quite interesting. We definitely had to unpack those.

Mandy 14:04

What were those assumptions?

SPEAKER_01 14:06

People had a view if it was red stickered, then it was, you know, it was totally gone. But that's that's not the the assumption. But as it turned out in Muriwe, we did take that approach of looking across Muriway as um as an area of what where was it unsafe, where was it safe? That took time um and careful consideration. We were dealing with people's, you know, one of their most significant assets. Um we were dealing with a community that was um, as I said, you know, there was a lot of trauma um within the community. People were displaced from their community, from the people that they um that they lived and worked amongst. Um kids were displaced from their from their homes. Um so life was disrupted. Um so we were it's it's quite a difficult place to have a conversation um with people about. But I but I think as we built trust and confidence um and people in the community took a leadership role, and the council took a leadership, uh, leadership role. Um, and that was significantly part of my role was to make sure that we we were open and honest. We said what we knew, we said what we didn't know, we said when what we were doing and when we would know more. Um and we had some great um great people who were working out there on site. Um and we allowed people to go back into their homes and collect important possessions, um, and that was heavily curated um because of the risks that were that were ongoing.

Mandy 15:50

There has been talk about, you know, especially sort of part way up Mototara Road, of um the sort of blanket red sticker approach just to make it easier so that um then you can kind of take your time to figure out what you know category the houses actually belonged in, which was I can sort of understand how that would be for you and also for the homeowners. What do you say to that?

SPEAKER_01 16:16

I think there were expectations that we, you know, we would have a formula that we could roll out and at a house at a property level, and that just wasn't the case. We just didn't have that detailed um knowledge of of the um geotechnical issues that were on a particular property or even in an area. So that that work um that uh the geotech engineers did was quite quite critical. So we had that that area-based approach where we could um where we could actually codify down to an individual property or cluster of properties was was quite important. Um at the same time, working with central government around, well, if this is now unsafe, is that an insurance only issue, or is there a central government support around, you know, a retreat option? Um we're also cognizant that there had been previous landslips um in Mirawai where there had been the tragedy of deaths in the mid-1960s. Um, and so not wanting to repeat um the perhaps the mistakes or provide the community certainty around the future was was really important and involve them in that process, which which um is asking a lot of people to go. You've suffered this trauma and these tragedies in your community, your farewelling people who died um on the night of Cyclone Gabrielle. But we also want, you know, we're wanting you to lean into and make really help us make really critical decisions about not only your own home but the broader community of what the community looks like in the future and the removal of you know um over 70 homes from the community and essentially um yeah, what's become known as category three um or land that as is high hazard. Um and some of that land may be able to be reused as non-residential uh land, but much of it will be continue as you know as high hazard land and and planted and looked after as uh you know an area of passive um passive uh use, if you like.

Mandy 18:41

When you issued the red stickers, were you expecting that over time some of those houses might be recategorized and and people could actually come back to those homes? Did you have any sort of idea of how that might play out in the future? People thought they would never get back to their homes and then they were allowed to come back to their homes. And and there were so many different levels within that, wasn't there?

SPEAKER_01 19:04

Yes. Um, and yeah, like I say, the red yeah, the red stickering is uh a point in time of a rapid building assessment. Um so the emphasis is on rapid, I guess. And um, but under that longer term work around the geotech um assessment, um, you know, was the critical part of understanding where the risks were high. Um and even even then, um, you know, we had a um the storm in July last year in 2025 demonstrated that there was still, you know, we hadn't quite got the boundaries right, or the geotech engineers, even after that um quite intense survey work, we needed to um extend that area, and another two homes were brought into um being removed and bought out. Uh, so um, yeah, those those risks uh don't go away. The circumstances were were um not unprecedented, of course, but um for for that community they hadn't faced that before. Um, and either in many ways, Auckland Council hadn't faced that on a scale um that had occurred across across the region and two significant weather events that had caused quite significant damage. We are now at a point where we've uh we've bought out um 1,160 homes.

Mandy 20:28

That's homes from across the Auckland region.

SPEAKER_01 20:31

Assisting people uh repair um over 150 um homes so they can stay in their homes with property level interventions. Uh and we've um done some work across the region of of identifying hazards um in our district plan or what's known as the Auckland Unitary Plan to really identify where those key risks and hazards are in a future climate scenario. So there were um quite a lot of those things occurring and overlaying that that context of well, what does this mean in our um for the future of Auckland? How do we how do we manage um these future climate risks on infrastructure that is perhaps not fit for purpose for intense events? And and the recent you know, cyclone VANU was a stark reminder again of you know um uh for the want of about um who knows, 20, 30, 50 kilometers further east, we may have been suffering um a further impact somewhere, if not across the whole um the whole region again. Um and we saw that play out to an extent down down the east coast, um the east coast of New Zealand.

Mandy 21:54

And just going back to um to the payouts, it must have been really Actually, very difficult for you to manage because you're you're liaising with the community but also central government. What was the split between Auckland Council and Central Government for the payouts?

SPEAKER_01 22:11

Yeah, so it was 50-50. So um a 50-50 payout. So uh you know, central government or cabinet made a decision in May. Um and we'd been working together with uh uh the Cyclone Recovery Task Force that led by Sir Brian Roche. Uh but um it wasn't until Cabinet made that decision that we had some certainty about that they were proposing this categorization system, and then the funding arrangements came later, um, and we had to go out to Aucklanders in terms of funding the other 50%, which was a package of you know $2.2 billion with um the Crown funding a port, uh quite uh, you know, essentially slightly more than half of that. Um across roading, um, future flood resilience projects and the buyout program and the what's known as category 2P or the property level intervention, which is again about a $40 million program of grants to allow homeowners to make their homes and properties more resilient. Um so they had to go out and be consulted with other Aucklanders, um, the other people of Auckland, if you like, of to, you know, because that's um the council didn't have uh you know a billion dollars um that they could just just fund without talking to other the other people of Auckland. Uh was also working alongside insurance companies to go, okay, um what's insurance retreat look like? What if, you know, how can we give you assurance around how we're managing these places in the future that are perhaps vulnerable from uh land instability, uh flooding, um, those future climate impacts? Um, how do we ensure that people can get insurance and um take care of their often their most significant asset? Um, working with Treasury around that, negotiating the final funding agreement and then implementing that. So having a framework that could assess homes from a flood perspective, from a landslip um perspective. And we started that work before we had a final funding agreement in place. Um we obviously started it right back in in February um 2023, but we started the buyout process and get getting people to uh to register in August, July, August 2023, and then finally a final decision um after feedback from Aucklanders around the funding. Um and the you know, Aucklanders generally were very the submissions we received um uh you know, over two and a half thousand submissions into that process and a very um fast submission process for council. Um people were very supportive, but they told us a number of things that you know there were a number of parties involved, primarily the government should be helping assist in the funding. Um sure, council should be. Insurers need to fund it, and and the homeowners who were impacted also needed to have some um some skin in the game. And that's where the settings came for those those buyouts.

Mandy 25:39

What were you expecting from the landowners?

SPEAKER_01 25:43

Well, property owners had you know they were impacted, obviously, but also this the settings of people who were insured, it would be a 95% um contribution or 95% funding for the buyout against a 2023 market value. Um, so what would the value of the home be uh would have been on the 26th of January 2023. Um but yeah, that 5% um contribution not insignificant for people, or if people were uninsured, a 20% contribution against against that market value in 2023. Um so that was um where the council landed. There was debate um uh with Auckland Council about what that level of funding should be, um, but that's where they landed.

Mandy 26:35

How did you work out the final amount that each homeowner received in their payout?

SPEAKER_01 26:41

It was a market value assessed by by a valuer for 2023. We just didn't use a capital value that was used in rating purposes. It was going each property was valued, um, and then also a process potential of dispute against value that property owners could enter into and and valuers could come together and and decide on that, um, agree or disagree on that value. So setting up dispute processes as well, not just around valuations, but around around the categorization of people thought no, we're we are a three or we're not a three, we want to stay here. So those dispute processes we've dealt with um over almost 600 disputes um through this process, uh, which are you know individual circumstances, not just around categorization, but people's own individual special circumstances. The majority of them are people seeing themselves with individual special circumstances. So not just a straight property transaction. Um, that's for sure.

Mandy 27:50

I felt like the general feeling was that it was it was pretty fair and it was accepted mostly.

SPEAKER_01 27:56

Yeah, that was the response that that I I see is that yes, there were some tricky circumstances, but we um worked through those with individuals. Um and I I think having that you know a natural a process of natural justice that allowed people to have to have input um and put their case. Um and generally the valuations um that occurred were seen as fair and reasonable. Um Murray Way as a priority community, we focused on that area um early on along with others and managed to get um, I think the first properties uh settlements or offers made by December 2023, which is quite a long time after the event um for sure. Um but in terms of how we've benchmarked, looked at that across uh and setting up the process, we looked at um other regions in New Zealand and what they've gone through, what they'd gone through in the past significantly, the Christchurch earthquakes, um significantly some some work that was done around Project Twin Streams, which was a stormwater project of buying our properties, but also looking at um these sorts of situations in Australia, um, America, and the UK, um, trying to look at what they had they had done and learn from those situations. Um and did we get it um perfect? I'm I'm sure people would say no. Um, but um certainly trying to understand, put ourselves in the shoes of those people who are impacted and and what would what would we expect um if we were in that situation. So um part of it was taking a customer experience approach, um and that may not seem typical, but um was actually putting our shoes in the ourselves within the shoes of those people who are impacted, and not only the homeowners, but the communities as well. So that was quite a big focus for us to uh to do that.

Mandy 30:07

If there was another event, which no doubt there will be, unfortunately, do you feel like you have systems in place and you'll be able to respond maybe better next time?

SPEAKER_01 30:18

Um without a without a doubt. Um I you know the circumstances will be different. Um the communities uh may be different, the the government settings might be different. Um, but we are we are in a much better place. We know and have captured um, if you like, the artifacts of the events of 2023 um to be much more ready uh to be able to respond. And part of that is an ongoing program with our community and social recovery team of working with communities. So um this we ran a program through um that was delivered by Leadership New Zealand where 28 community members uh put their hands up and said, we want to be um get some, be more prepared in the future as well, um, as and lead our community in these sorts of events. And they went through a leadership program. And then we're also we've been working with 24 communities across the region who were impacted in 2023. But that's some of those areas that are also a potential risk that weren't impacted as badly um or as significantly, um, so that we we um it's the first time we talk to people about recovery um or what the risks are of climate adaptation and what can occur at a at a property level but also at a um a community level uh is is not you know the the night of the event or the or a week when we're steering down the barrel of a cyclone um heading to heading towards us. So that's been an important important part of what what we've done. Um capturing capturing all that feedback from our navigation service. So we had stood up a navigation service to have um so people had somewhere to someone, um, a person to go to and understand what where could they get help, what were their next steps, um, what was happening, what was the update? So though each one of those navigators had a maximum of 31 clients, if you like, or 31 families to um to look after and make sure they were getting the right help. Um, and not always, Auckland Council wasn't always providing that assistance, um, but um pointing them towards government agencies or other community agencies that where they can get assistance and help, including things like housing. So advocacy back into the government for temporary accommodation assistance, when the insurance for alternative accommodation ran out. So all of those things um have been captured. But there are some significant ingredients um, if you like, of recovery, some significant kind of settings or conditions that that we've we're capturing in a lessons learned approach at the end of this and have been capturing those along the way so that future people like me and our councillors, uh, mayor and councillors and our local board members and communities can be more prepared. Um will we will they be totally prepared? Um no. Um, but will we be more prepared um for these events in the future? And that includes working with central government around a national climate adaptation plan. Um, how is the government responding to you know climate adaptation? Um and Minister Watts or this current coalition government minister of Simon Watts has been leading that. And that was part of our funding agreement, or the council's funding agreement with the Crown was um, you know, central government needs to be more prepared as well and provide more certainty. Communities can't do this all on their own.

Mandy 34:23

What was the initial communication? I know you worked quite closely with people like Mike Hibbett and Cleta Bradley. What was the initial communication and connection and and what made that work really well? Like what could you say for other communities for how to connect with council really early on? And what did Mirawai do well in that respect?

SPEAKER_01 34:45

I mean, that leadership that stood up through uh Mike and Claire, and there was um other through the surf club leadership as well early on. Um I'd had an involvement as a trustee of um of building Miraway Surf Club. So I had some connection with the community myself. So, you know, but we we put in place um having a single point of contact um through Scott DeSilva. And then our geotechnical engineers were out on site every day. Um so we had we um quickly identified, you know, um the need to have a have a rallying point between the council and the community. And Claire and Mike um yeah, took that leadership role and and helped curate our response and for us to hear how the community was feeling and what their information needs were, what would provide certainty, and just that building that trust and openness and honesty about what we could do when we were likely to be able to respond was was really critical. And you know, building that one-on-one at a with myself, but with others as well, with our elected members, um, and with this the people on the ground. Um so that was there was always some for someone for them to to talk to and we would respond. Um and then um a uh and it sounds um uh trivial in some ways, but a newsletter that was focused on Meriwai so that we can provide updates about what was happening. We had you know meetings um at Mirawai where people could ask the difficult questions where we fronted up with ministers, with local MPs, with counselors, um, with decision makers from a governance point of view, um and and um yeah, met the community um and then meet them one-on-one as well. Um so being available was really, really important. And then later on, more generally, through webinars of providing um information.

Mandy 36:59

Do you feel like it's good for a community to have a few spokespeople who are the main people and the sort of conduits to getting the information to people in the community, or are you open to individuals also approaching you?

SPEAKER_01 37:14

Uh it was both, but uh I think that community leadership was critical. And that's one of the reasons we you know developed the what we've called the adapting together program. I talked about with Leadership New Zealand running a program that um gave some training because, you know, um the Mike's and the Claire, you know, they've had some leadership experience and knew their community really well. But we're expecting a lot of people, um, a huge investment in taking some things on their shoulders that, you know, when they're when they're impacted by these events as well. So um, but that was really um extremely helpful when people um emerged from within the community to be able to take a leadership role. Much more difficult to um speak to the individuals and many, um, but but retain an option for people to do that. I think they were great advocates for themselves, which is fantastic. Um, they also came together strongly um as a community. There was an obvious um strong um uh uh community presence um that they'd had, you know, they they um, you know, neighbors knew neighbors, they looked after each other, they advocated for themselves and each other, they advocated as a community and a single voice, which is much a very powerful thing to do in a political environment. Um so they were able to get their message across extremely strongly. The community um came together um quite strongly and they used the mechanisms they had. Personally, I was quite proud to see the Surf Club as a trustee before that was built. Um and uh as you know, at that time I was general manager of um parks, sport and recreation and and previously director of parks um and recreation and Auckland Regional Council, sort of getting that across the line. Um but having a community hub became really um really important. Um and since you know, seeing some more resilience put in place there, so and dealing with that, you know, it did flood on the night of Gabriel, but it that's where people went. Um, so and that was always the intention that um that would be a community place of gathering.

Mandy 39:47

I've spoken to Nate and Kate, it's so nice to see, you know, all the stuff that's been put in place since I feel like the whole community is much more prepared. I don't know, just knows what to do. And even with the cyclone, was it last week, week before, all the communication that came out from the Middle Eye Community Association, that kind of thing was it's really good. Yeah. I think we're we are way more prepared. And I I imagine, do you feel like other communities are more prepared, or would it take an event to really hit a community before they take action?

SPEAKER_01 40:19

Um I guess my key point is uh that it is a you know, in a weather event or in a an emergency event, it's a societal response. And that was one of the things I I think there was an expectation there would be, you know, an army of people that were just that were ready and waiting, and that's not the case. That requires some, you know, some activation um for people to to do that. Um and New Zealand Defense Force does that, Auckland Emergency Management, Auckland Council, the police, um, fire fire and emergency, you know, all of that occurs. But um I think the community actually responding is that whole societal approach is so important. But I do think communities are generally more prepared than they than they were last time. Those communities that were impacted will be stronger. Um, and it's part of our job um to make sure that communities not so much don't forget but um continue to take those good old-fashioned approaches of neighborhood, knowing your neighbor, um, knowing your community, um, coming together as a community. And I think places like Miraway were probably well served. Those small coastal communities um are pretty tight. Um, and um they come together the quickly um in the case of adversity, but because they've come together in in normal times as well as a community. In some places that's been lost.

Mandy 41:56

What are you doing, or what's the council doing to ensure that the land that was deemed unlivable uh continues to be seen like that into the future?

SPEAKER_01 42:06

Yeah, so that's really critical. And it's um from a personal perspective, it's something I promised myself that I would you know make sure happened. Uh so that is going to be at risk, you know, um, on each of the property files, but there's a future piece of work around storm-affected land. We're calling it um the future of storm-affected land. Um and part of that could be sold for reuse for non-residential. In some cases, it could, um, not in the case of Miraway, I don't think it's it's needed for other infrastructure. So water cares, you're going to use some of that land for future for the water supply functions. There's some stormwater work about to start in Muriway that will need some of that land. But yes, putting some overlays, um hazard overlays into the district plan and um if you like for uh covenanting that land as being unsuitable for development and managed as high-hazard land. That's one of the key work streams for Muriwai, but for other areas as well. So we don't repeat those mistakes of the past where land, you know, after a few years it's forgotten about um and it gets re-redeveloped. So that's a really important um part of I don't want to say legacy, but the legacy of the recovery, the recovery office and and what we're we're achieving. I mean, I think the community's been really clear about that as well.

Mandy 43:44

Can you tell us where the recovery office is now within Auckland Council and uh what things have been set up for the future?

SPEAKER_01 43:52

Yeah, we're about to close the office. Um, you know, we were at one stage almost 400 people involved, and now we're closing closing the office on the 30th of June. We're not stopping something. That's kind of bittersweet for me as as we see people um you know go. We're right down to about 38 people now and we will you know we'll close right out the recovery office itself. So we have built some new roles into Auckland Emergency Management for recovery to build capability and capacity to be ready for recovery. And the the community and social recovery team I talked about will continue for at least another 18 months if not longer term to have that community engaged level of community engagement that's required.

Mandy 44:41

That's just the sad thing isn't it that we know there's just going to be more events like this.

SPEAKER_01 44:46

Yeah that's a tragedy and and working together with colleagues um particularly in Gisbon and and the Hawkes Bay Plenty um that's been important too to learn as a as a group and and nationally there's now a group of uh recovery managers who are working much more strongly together to to actually be more prepared as a nation um and to support regions that might suffer these sorts of events. So I think uh you know um you've got to gotta look at the positive um a lot of good things have come come out of it um and and people have have responded extremely well. There is some tragedy involved and and the coroner's inquiry were expecting that to come out later in the year. And it was important to me for example to go along um I gave evidence but um then when you know the the widows of Craig and and Dave were giving evidence and fire some particular focus on Merryway also gave evidence but staying and listening to that was was um difficult um but important. I think it's an important process, a really difficult process but the leadership and the and the strength that was shown by um by people was significant so got to acknowledge that it's um the the tragedy that that occurs. And finally Mace is there something you'd like to say to the Mirawai community I guess a key thing um for me to say to Mirawai is uh thank you. Um you know you held yourself um with real poise um you advocated as your right was to do um to get the attention that you needed to recover um and your recovery has been at all levels the community has really recovered strongly um the environment will take time um to recover but it's well on its way to to doing that and returning to being the vibrant really beautiful place that that Midiway you know midywhe is um thank you for your time the leadership um your patience um and allowing us to come come into your community and and help uh where we could um and I hope we have provided some you know the support that was needed for for Marijuana to recover Christipus was commissioned and funded by Mudawai Community Association supported by the Auckland Council Recovery Office artwork by Tyler Williams sound tech by local Mudowai band Tin People written in response to Citman Gabrielle Namahi thank you to the Mudowai community for their input in bravery and for sharing their stories and thank you for listening