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Many of the agencies that responded to the Whakaari / White Island tragedy did not have a specific plan to deal with an eruption on the island, 1 NEWS may reveal.
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Emergency services refused to go to the island that day, and families struggled to know when that would happen. Source: 1 NEWS
The eruption of December 9 last year at the famous active volcano killed 22 people. Documents released under the Official Information Act show that many responding agencies, including DHB and other government agencies, relied on general emergency plans.
Victims with life-threatening burns were sent to nearby hospitals including Whakatāne Hospital, Waikato Hospital, Middlemore Hospital, where the National Burn Center is located, but none of those agencies had a specific plan for whether the volcano exploded.
The National Emergency Management Agency (formerly known as Civil Defense) did not have a specific plan either, nor did the New Zealand Defense Force.
Emergency Management Bay of Plenty had a plan, but it was a draft. In response to the 1 NEWS inquiry, the Bay of Plenty Regional Council said that the “EMPOB Response Plan that was in effect on the day of the eruption is not a final or approved Response Plan.”
“However, it was used because it was in its final phase of internal review and was considered an ‘operational draft.’
The plan also “assumes that other key agencies have their own response plan and / or management processes.”
New Zealand police initially rejected 1 NEWS ‘request for information, saying plans to deal with any eruptions on Whakaari / White Island “do not exist.”
But this week, police discovered a 42-page White Island Eruption Response Plan after “further investigations” and said it was used on the day of the eruption.
“The personnel who led the emergency response that day had access to the plan and were familiar with it,” said a police spokesman.
“The Plan was part of the set of tools used by the response team managing rescue and recovery activities.”
The police response plan states that the New Zealand Police mission is to “lead a search and rescue (SAR) response to any volcanic event on the White Island (Whakaari) when it is necessary to safely remove people present that cannot be evacuated by Tour Operators ”.
But while 12 victims were rescued by private helicopter pilots, the police never went to the island. Six bodies were recovered by Defense Forces personnel on December 13, four days after the eruption.
Private helicopter pilot Mark Law, who rescued five of the victims, says the lack of planning between the agencies was obvious.
“The disappointing part was that he felt like he was disjointed in the top management of many departments. That’s where some glitches and bad communications, lack of planning, that kind of commitment disappeared.
“We cannot afford to sit back and think about the risks of others, that is the biggest change that is required in emergency services and emergency planning.”
University of Canterbury Resilience and Disaster Risk Professor Tom Wilson says it’s not reasonable to expect all agencies to have a specific plan for an event like the Whakaari eruption.
“If you are developing a plan for each different possible scenario, you will never be able to because there are so many different permutations of floods, volcanic eruptions, earthquakes, tsunamis, and the list goes on.”
“What NZ Emergency Management is trying to do is a high degree of planning, but much of it can be quite generic. What they are trying to produce is a capacity and capacity that can respond to any crisis or disaster that occurs in an efficient, timely and effective manner ”.
But there is long-term multi-agency planning and investigation for an eruption on the Central Plateau and in Auckland.
There are 21 agencies, including NEMA, New Zealand Police, New Zealand Fire and Emergencies, and the New Zealand Defense Force, that make up the Central Plateau Volcanic Advisory Group, which covers the area surrounding Mount Ruapehu, Mount Ngauruhoe and Mount Tongariro.
The Ruapehu district council says the group “regularly reviews” its plans and procedures for Mount Ruapehu, and hired an outside consultant to conduct a full review last year.
Professor Jan Lindsay leads Auckland’s DEVORA program, where researchers work with emergency management authorities to plan an eruption in Auckland’s volcanic field.
She says there is “certainly scope for a more coordinated approach and better plans in place” at Whakaari.
“We have had workshops with the New Zealand Police and New Zealand Fire and Emergency and we planned who would do what in the event of a future eruption [in Auckland] so we sat down with them and discussed those things. “
“There has been a lot of research done at Whakaari, I think communication may not have been as good as it could have been if there was such a coordinated research effort that included stakeholders.”
New Zealand police say the reason for not fulfilling their mission to recover the victims on Whakaari / White Island was “well covered at the time.”
“The environment on the island had changed after the eruption, the police were committed to getting to the island as quickly as possible and were working with partner agencies to ensure that we did so safely,” said a spokesman.
Bay of Plenty DHB Emergency Planning Coordinator Josephine Peters says that although the DHB will review its plans, it does not believe that the response from Whakatāne Hospital could have been enhanced with a specific eruption plan.
“The level of care received by patients while at Whakatāne Hospital after the Whakaari eruption was nothing short of exceptional … The reality is that no specific Whakaari plan could have improved the care that was provided on December 9. from last year”.
A Counties Manukau health spokesperson says the National Burn Center has a National Burn Disaster Plan that was formulated in 2011, in conjunction with the Ministry of Health.
“Although the specific case of a volcanic eruption was not considered in that plan, the general principles were well established and understood. The Plan is reviewed annually and will continue to be modified in light of experience, including what was learned from this incident. “
The National Emergency Management Agency, which has been charged by WorkSafe for the eruption, said it could not comment on its planning for an eruption on the island.
“NEMA works closely with Civil Defense Emergency Management Groups and other partners to support planning and response to a variety of potential hazards at all times.
As regards Whakaari, as this matter is subject to legal procedures, it would not be appropriate to comment further until this process is complete. “
