Cyclone Gabrielle inquest hears about deaths of Ivy Collins, Susane Caccioppoli

Source: Radio New Zealand

• Coroner Erin Woolley is investigating the deaths of 19 people who died in 2023 as a result of Cyclone Gabrielle and the Auckland Anniversary Weekend floods.
• A number of independent investigations into how Hawke’s Bay local authorities responded to the cyclone found major failings in their ability to plan for, and respond to, extreme weather events.
• So far the coronial inquiry has heard emotional apologies from civil defence and emergency services, revealed failures in communications and technology, and listened to harrowing 111 calls from victims.

The harrowing stories of people who narrowly survived Cyclone Gabrielle and lost their loved ones are being heard in the Hastings District Court this week.

Cyclone Gabrielle’s youngest victim was two-year-old Ivy Collins, whose mother Ella says would still be alive if authorities had warned them of the flooding risk in February 2023.

“We wouldn’t have been there. We would never have put our babies to bed that night if we had any understanding of what was coming. We would have left,” she told the court.

But instead, reassured by Facebook posts from local councils and civil defence, the Collins family went to sleep on 13 February with no idea they were in harm’s way.

Ella woke at about 4am on 14 February 2023 to the sound of water gushing, and stepped into ankle deep water.

Within 30 minutes their beds were floating, and her husband woke their two children – four-year-old Imogen and two-year-old Ivy to tell them they were “going on an adventure”, but that they would be okay.

With the kids on their shoulders, Ella and Jack decided the safest place was their neighbours two storey house. In the darkness, using the light of their cellphones, they set off on what should have been a quick walk to safety.

But as they crossed a driveway, the floodwaters suddenly changed. It became much deeper with a stronger current that swept them off their feet.

Ella choked back tears as she described what happened next.

“I had been pushed under the water. The water lifted Ivy off my shoulders and as I came out of the water I saw her floating face down away from me … along the current … I screamed to Jack ‘I’ve lost her’. I screamed ‘I’ve lost Ivy’,” she said.

Jack pulled Ella and Imogen onto a hedge he had managed to grab, then he dived into the water to find Ivy.

“With Jack gone into the darkness, and unsure if I’d ever see him again … I could hear him howling … my focus shifted to just getting Imogen to safety.

“Fortunately we were reunited sometime later after he managed to make his way back to us, which is nothing short of a miracle. We just continued fighting to survive.”

The trauma from that night will haunt the Collins family forever. Jack is unable to return to work as a mechanic after breaking his spine trying to get them onto a roof, and Ella said seven-year-old Imogen struggles daily with the loss of her sister.

“We lost two girls that night. She’ll never be the same. Our family is broken in ways I can’t articulate.

“The worst part is that our tragedy, our grief and our trauma all could have been prevented,” she said.

Ella wants to see more timely evacuation orders and communications about flood risks, which Coroner Woolley agreed was needed.

“I do hope something good can come of this and I certainly agree with you there needs to be a more proactive evacuations.

“To my mind that is how you stop people from suffering in flooding… is to make sure they are not there when the flooding is happening,” the coroner said.

Ella said she did not accept evidence provided by Hawke’s Bay’s Civil Defence group controller at the time, Ian Macdonald, who said issuing too many civil defence alerts risked ‘desensitising’ the public.

‘We’re going to die’

During the cyclone, Gareth Jones was further up the Esk Valley, house-sitting with his friend Susane Caccioppoli.

When the river broke its banks and water started pouring into the house, they smashed their way into the ceiling cavity. As the water kept rising they managed to escape onto the roof.

“We weren’t scared… but (we thought) ‘we’re going to die, there’s no way we’re going to get through this’.

“Sue said to me, ‘it’s okay, I’m with you I’m happy’. And we talked about our children,” he recounted.

Then they heard a horrendous crash and saw a shipping container fly past, soon after the roof they were clinging to tipped up like the Titanic and threw them into the raging torrent.

Gareth found a piece of driftwood and was holding onto Susane as they were swept towards a shelterbelt of trees where he was forced to let go of his friend.

He was in tears as he recalled that awful moment.

“All I can remember as we went towards it, was something hitting me across the head and something grabbing my foot.

“When it grabbed my foot it just pulled me under water with such force.. all I can remember doing was raising my arm.. and I had to let Sue go.. I tried so hard,” he sobbed.

He washed up downstream in a quarry, somehow alive, but Susane didn’t make it.

Gareth told the coroner he hopes sharing his traumatic experience, will make a difference as he doesn’t want anyone else to needlessly die over something so preventable.

“Hearing accounts from people like you and others, I think it’s very lucky more people didn’t lose their lives,” the Coroner responded.

“Thank you so much for having that strength to give evidence today, it’s certainly been very valuable for me,” she said.

Susane’s daughter Bianka-Lee Bryan also gave evidence, telling the court it took five days for police to confirm the body they had found was her mother.

“I have been thinking a lot about how that week went for me and my family… I do not think it’s okay to leave people stressing for that long.

“Hoping that mum was still alive, frantically searching for her, hearing rumours and information through media and nobody official telling us anything.. without support or communication, those days will haunt us forever,” Bryan said.

The inquest will continue for the rest of the week in the Hastings District Court, where the families of the 13 people who died in Hawke’s Bay during the cyclone will also be giving evidence.

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– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand