Cyclone Gabrielle caused considerable disruption to Early Childhood Education services in the Hawkes Bay and Tairāwhiti region, leaving parents and providers uncertain of what to do next. All services have been impacted in some way – lost homes, damaged property, loss of income and roading conditions. Despite this we are a resilient bunch – and on ECC’s CEO Simon Laube’s recent visit to the Bay in support of the Pay Parity Funding Hui – we heard stories of how some services are coping. No one predicted the massive damage the cyclone and subsequent failure of the stop banks would cause. Sindy Cormack (The DEN), shared with us that on the Tuesday morning after the cyclone she flung a spade in the back of her car and was heading to her centre, when she realised the utter devastation and any access to her centre or in fact out of her road was closed. Bronwyn Tamis (Puketapu Preschool) commented that tamariki compare how big the helicopter was that got you off the roof. Melody Stuckey (Havelock North Family Centre) got trapped in Napier, whilst going over to retrieve a teacher who was rescued off her roof with her 7month old baby (after 6hours) …. They finally got back some 10 hours later. Flooding, burst stopbanks , wind damage and power outages caused closure for many ECE facilities for up to 2 weeks, along with a complete lack of communications – we literally became a tale of two cities – Napier (where we held conference last year) becoming an island – with no way in or out, no power and no communications. We were fortunate of the advocacy of Simon Laube to stop the requirement to check in every day that a centre was closed (remember the no comms / power bit earlier). Thank you Simon! The impacts of Cyclone Gabrielle on Hawkes Bay ECE services has brought to light not only the need for stronger communication and coordination between central governments, regional councils, and service providers, but also the information needed about local risk management planning in order to sustain safe operations. WE never expected to be without power or communication for so long – and planning for this for future weather events may be worthwhile (I now have first-hand knowledge of why a transistor radio is so important in your Civil defence Kit). Looking to the future – Hawkes Bay needs THE EFFECTS OF CYCLONE GABRIELLE ON ECE BY AIMEE HAWKE Puketapu Bridge (or not) June 2023 { 16 }
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy NDc2Mzg=