Response challenges

Response challenges

by Jade Badcock -
Number of replies: 0

In Lower Hutt, we're on the Wellington fault line, so at risk of earthquake and tsunami, as well as flooding.

Like many communities in Aotearoa, we have a heavy reliance on State Highway 2 which is the main arterial route with communities on the western hills separated from the rest of the city. Two suburbs, Eastbourne and Wainuiomata only have one road in and one road out. Eastbourne has greater risks of flooding as well as a large population that would be affected by tsunami. Wainuiomata, has a far reduced risk of flooding. Most of the city is at risk of slope instability as well.

A lesser hazard that hasn't been discussed is liquefaction, although there is evidence that the earthquake in the 1800s decreased the number of waterways in the city. Fortunately, liquefaction risks are picked up at the resource consenting stage, and engineering solutions put in place. (It should be noted that this is a little hit and miss, and caused major additional costs and extensive delays to the construction of a mid storey hotel.)

The city's main focus at the moment is improving flood protection along the Hutt River/SH2 corridor, with major roading/resilience enhancements planned to SH2 between Melling and Wellington. This will also provide better protection to the railway, which literally fell into the sea in heavy storms in 2015!

Following the Kaikoura earthquake in 2016, the city decided to dispense with the tsunami siren system - instead relying on radio/emergency broadcasts. Tsunami areas have been marked out and Civil Defence undertook a lot of education with schools (including day cares) to ensure that evacuation routes are well known.

So the issues that would come from a major incident in the Hutt are infrastructure issues (the city has not been able to repair extensive damage to sewer pipes from the 2016 earthquakes - so these are likely to break completely). The fact that the railway line is parallel to SH2 for much of line means that if the road is impassable, so is the railway. This would therefore place stress on food availability - especially to the western hills that are predominantly supplied by small independent dairies, Eastbourne, which is served by a small Four Square and small businesses (green grocer and butcher), and of course Wainuiomata, which has one large supermarket that is dependent on the same single road as the community.

The loss of electricity would mean for many, spoiled food (fridge or freezer), the inability to cook, and a reasonably high level of difficulty getting to civil defence centres. The single ambulance station and fire stations would be under considerable pressure as staff could struggle to get to work, and the hospital would experience similar workforce issues.

When civil defence say that we need at least three days worth of food and water to be self-sustainable - they are not joking!

On the upside, many streets, or collection of streets have informal networks so that the community will support each other.

The real major risk is that it will take much longer than 72 hours for infrastructure to be repaired to enable supplies to get into the valley. Both Wainuiomata and Eastbourne would require aerial drops, which is much more possible in Wainuiomata than Eastbourne (the schools and therefore their playing fields are all in the tsunami zone).

Medical emergencies would be reliant on those with First Aid certificates, or medical personnel resident in streets.

And, after a slow start, Hutt Valley DHB has achieved a 90 percent double vaccination rate for COVID-19. I suspect however, that vaccination rates for Māori, Pacific peoples, our refugee community, and lower socio-economic groups will be lower.   

I've really sold Lower Hutt as a great place to live, work and play haven't I? I suppose one upside is the more economically deprived areas have a lower risk of tsunami as they're further up the valley. 

On the other hand, most residents know the risks and have the mitigations in place. As well as this, when people move into the area, neighbours do try to ensure the local knowledge is passed on!

I feel that this could be a great project for the Scouts.