Outstanding response by staff during flooding

Police were out working in waist high water and sludge when major flooding caused devastation around the lower North Island and upper South Island last month.

The floods have been described as the worst on record and affected both rural and urban areas. Police were kept busy throughout the storms during the week of 16 February.

In Wanganui several staff worked up to 22 hours at a time, says Wanganui Area Controller, Inspector Sam Hoyle. Sam says all of his staff did an outstanding job “staying on their feet for countless hours knowing they wouldn’t get home”. “A lot of people slept on other people’s floors or couches and then got up and did it all again the next day. Staff were volunteering to return to work to help.”

As well as preventing traffic from entering flood affected areas, police were involved in myriad activities, including helping to evacuate people from their homes.

In Marton, one of the worst hit towns, Constable Karl Williams completed a day shift and then spent another couple of hours on traffic control when SH1 closed – and was back out yet again at 11.30 that night. “We’d had 24 hours of solid rain at that stage and the stream that runs through Marton was flowing through the town. Around 100 people from throughout the area evacuated to the Memorial Hall where Civil Defence had set up a shelter.”
He says emergency services worked closely together. “We had huge help from the local volunteer fire officers,” he says. “Everyone worked really well together.” Finally finishing work at 10.30am on Monday, Karl says he had a few hours off work before coming back in the afternoon.

Karl says the Marton staff were grateful for assistance from police outside their town. “This was a collective effort by a lot of people who worked some big hours.”

Lower Hutt was one of the worst hit areas in the Wellington region and staff from around the district offered assistance, says Lower Hutt Area Controller Inspector Bruce Dunstan. “We were very grateful for the unprompted offers of assistance,” he says. At the height of the storm, 25 staff were out redirecting traffic and assisting residents from their homes. “The water level was dramatically rising to the point where people were in danger of losing their lives. We had to call in the Wharf police with their inflatable, as the water was getting too deep to wade through. A lot of people were trapped in their houses and were in extreme danger.”

Bruce says he is very grateful to his staff who came in on days off and worked extra shifts. “The night shift on Sunday was still going early afternoon on the Monday,” he says. “There were no grizzles or groans – everyone just got on with the job. It was a great response.”