Flooding, Auckland Waitematā, 27 January 2023
CWDS48 Constable Cameron Whittaker
New Zealand Bravery Medal
On 27 January 2023, heavy rainfall caused unprecedented flooding and destruction in Auckland, with thousands of homes damaged. Within 24 hours, 245mm of rain fell and four people lost their lives.
Constable Cameron Whittaker was working a nightshift with two other colleagues when they responded to a family of three adults, an 18-month-old toddler and a six-week-old baby, trapped in their Warkworth home.
They could not get their vehicle closer than 150 metres to the house as the surrounding ground was slipping. They approached on foot over a precarious landscape with slips and waist-deep mud.
The officers formed a human chain, passing the children to safety over an unstable 200-metre slip. The adults were then able to evacuate, reaching safety just before the slip shifted and moved further downhill.
Later that night, Constable Whittaker responded to a person trapped in rising floodwaters in Kaipara Flats. The man had tried to cross to land several times but the current kept pushing him back into a tree.
Constable Whittaker waded around 100 metres through chest-deep floods and saw the man across a 30-metre stretch of treacherous water. He found a lifejacket, rope and a boogie board and swam to the man, losing the rope in debris en route. By now the man had been stuck for two hours and was showing signs of hypothermia and at risk of losing consciousness.
Constable Whittaker got the lifejacket on the man and encouraged him on to the boogie board. Meanwhile a firefighter had swum over with another rope. Working together, they got the man to safety.
We remember those who lost their lives:
David Lennard (78)
David Young (58)
Daniel Miller (34)
Daniel Newth (25)
Operation Gabrielle, Auckland Waitematā, 14 February 2023
JHMY66 Constable Joshua Head
MLJX00 Constable Maxwell Lewis
New Zealand Bravery Medal
On 14 February 2023, Cyclone Gabrielle hit New Zealand, causing widespread devastation in Auckland.
Police were called to Muriwai to assist Fire and Emergency New Zealand (FENZ) evacuate residents and to search for two missing firefighters who had been buried under a landslide.
Constable Josh Head and Constable Maxwell Lewis searched for the firefighters in treacherous nighttime conditions with heavy rain, high winds, flooding and slips. Constable Head found one of the men, buried and barely visible. Constable Lewis worked with FENZ and Urban Search and Rescue to free him, while Constable Head held his hand, providing reassurance.
FENZ lighting was the only light available as Constables Lewis and Head remained with the firefighter as slips surrounded them – one slip passing just six metres away.
After a considerable period, both firefighters were extracted and taken to hospital. They died from their injuries several days later.
We remember those who lost their lives:
Firefighter Dave VAN Zwanenberg (41)
Firefighter CRAIG Stevens (39)
Operation Gabrielle, Eastern District Heretaunga, 14 February 2023
MBFR62 Constable Mark Bancroft
KMQD41 Constable Kurtis Maney
PNLS48 Detective Constable Patrick Noiseux
JSJA37 Detective Constable Jaime Stewart
New Zealand Bravery Medal
On 14 February 2023, Cyclone Gabrielle hit New Zealand, causing widespread devastation in the Eastern District, and a large-scale Civil Defence emergency response.
Rivers flooded, stopbanks were breached, rapid flooding enveloped buildings and landslides swept away homes. Slips, debris and downed bridges prevented movement along many roads.
Constables Mark Bancroft, Patrick Noiseux and Kurt Maney were deployed to Pakowhai Road outside Hastings to assist evacuations.
They found six people who had jumped from a truck looking for safe ground and been caught in a strong current on a flooded road. They were clinging to a pole but stranded in chest-high water.
Constables Bancroft and Maney went to help but the current swept them and all six people away. Constable Noiseux temporarily secured himself and Constable Bancroft attracted his attention, but the constables and the civilians were pulled under and swept into a large hedge, before securing themselves in tree branches.
Constable Bancroft called the Police Emergency Communication Centre and Constable Noiseux stopped a large transporter truck with a digger and Landcruiser on the trailer and asked to use the digger for a rescue.
With everyone on board, the driver moved the truck toward the Chesterhope Bridge but the stopbank of the Ngaruroro River breached and a wall of water rushed towards them, the water level rising two-and-a-half metres in 15 minutes.
Those on the truck climbed on to the rooves of the truck and Landcruiser. The constables contacted the Police Emergency Communication Centre again and an inflatable rescue boat (IRB) arrived and took the civilians to safety two at a time, until a puncture reduced capacity to one person at a time.
The constables remained on the submerged truck roof until all others had been rescued and were picked up in the IRB.
Meanwhile, Detective Constable Jaime Stewart and another police officer were deployed to rescue people in the Pakowhai area, outside Hastings. A fellow police officer was trapped with her 4-year-old son and baby on a shed roof.
The officers drove near to the Pakowhai Road address but had to continue on foot through rising floodwaters. They waded through chest-high water and a strong current and, once the mother and her children were off the roof, they all struggled back to the police car.
Detective Constable Stewart and her colleague then focused on worsening conditions at Chesterhope Bridge, where they saw a couple – neither of whom were able swimmers - stranded around 200 metres away, trying to cross the flood.
After receiving no response to loudspeaker instructions, Detective Constable Stewart made her way to the couple and helped them to a submerged fence line where the other officer was able to reach the exhausted woman.
Detective Constable Stewart helped keep the man afloat and, when he went under, dived and lifted him to safety. Then both officers carried the woman to safety.
We remember those who lost their lives during Cyclone Gabrielle:
Helen Street (86)
Ian McLauchlan (76)
George Luke (65)
John Coates (64)
Marie Green (59)
Shona Wilson (58)
Susane Caccioppoli (56)
Brendan Miller (43)
Dave VAN Zwanenberg (41)
Craig Stevens (39)
Ivy Collins (2)
Missing:
Joseph Ahuriri (40)