Video: Kirsten Wise reflects on Cyclone devastation and charts way forward for Napier
Napier Mayor Kirsten has seen the devastation wrought by Cyclone Gabrielle first hand, but she is determined to work together with other local leaders and the community to rebuild.
In a wide-ranging interview with Hawke’s Bay App, Wise says her focus over the last week has been ensuring that the city gets its power back.
“The other real core focus for us is because so many of our community were without power for a number of days, just making sure that people have got food, that they've got fuel, that they're able to provide their families with what they need.”
She says while the response mode is still in progress, she is now “starting to put my mind into our recovery planning as well”.
“That needs to be separated into short term, medium term, and long term. So I will be over the next few days, pulling together with our staff an application for Mayoral Relief funding because we know that we are going to need significant support from central government to actually support our community.”
“That is from the welfare perspective first and foremost, but also from an economic perspective. We know that we've got local business owners that were already doing it tough and now it's only going to be tougher. So, how can we best support them so that they can best support their staff."
This will ensure that Napier and the region can recover from this and retain the vital local businesses.
Wise said the important thing to note about Napier is that its needs differed from other Hawke’s Bay regions affected by the Cyclone.
“The other councils all have significant rural areas and primary sector industries, which have absolutely been devastated through this event. We here in Napier are very much around tourism, events, small and medium locally owned businesses, and their needs are very different but just as important.”
The priority for Napier is the access bridges into the city, says Wise.
“We got cut off completely isolated. So we need to know that they are going to be a priority or at least two or three of them will be a priority in terms of rebuilding that roading network."
Some of the worst-hit areas like Esk Valley, Eskdale, Rissington, Puketapu and Waiohiki are official parts of Hastings District Council despite being close to Napier.
“They do sit within the Hastings District Council official boundary lines, but all of those communities identify with Napier. Their children go to our schools, they use our council facilities, they do their shopping in Napier.
“And I want to make it really clear to all of the residents and community members out there that we are going to support you and we will wrap our arms around you.”
Asked if there was anything her Council could have done to lessen the impact of the storm, Wise says they had taken some “significant learnings” from the 2020 Napier floods.
“We've invested in our stormwater over the last two and a half years, and we've refined our systems and processes in the lead up to responding to an event such as this.”
“Our network did exactly what it needed to do. There was no issues with our stormwater network. Our teams were out there in the lead up to the forecast weather, doing everything they need to do, clearing drains, the things that we ask our community to assist with as well.”
Wise says the issue was that this weather event resulted in breaches of the river banks and stock banks.
“That’s going to mean that, alongside the regional council, we are going to be looking at what needs to happen to improve that infrastructure.”
Asked if a single amalgamated council would have made it easier to handle the Cyclone, Wise says all councils have been working closely together anyway.
“We have a regional leaders meeting every night at 6:30 so that we can keep each other updated and we can start making those decisions about things that need to happen at a regional level. And we are well aware of what those things are, because for the three years and, well, over three years now, in my second term that I've been mayor, these are the conversations we've been having. We know it's roading, we know it's housing, we know it's three waters. These are the things that we will commit to working on together.”
“The flip side of that is that here in Napier, we have some very unique needs that I believe if we were sitting as an amalgamated council across the whole of Hawke's Bay would not be met because there wouldn't be a mayor strongly advocating for what we need.”
