Source: Radio New Zealand
Six people were killed when a landslide hit the Mount Maunganui Beachside Holiday Park Shirley Thomas
Nearly a week after six people were killed in a landslide at the Mount Maunganui campground, questions remain on who knew what, when they were notified, and what action could or should have been taken. National Crime Correspondent Sam Sherwood reports.
It was about 5am, when Lisa Anne Maclennan began waking her fellow campers in Mount Maunganui, warning them about a slip that had pushed her campervan about a metre forward.
Nearly five hours later a massive chunk of land came down at the Beachside Holiday Park, smashing into campervans, tents, vehicles and an ablution block near the Mount Hot Pools. Six people remain missing, Maclennan, 50, Måns Loke Bernhardsson, 20, Jacqualine Suzanne Wheeler, 71, Susan Doreen Knowles, 71, Sharon Maccanico, 15, and Max Furse-Kee, 15.
RNZ has asked authorities in the days since the landslide what they knew and what actions they took.
‘I think everyone should move’
A woman, who did not want to be named, told RNZ she had been at the campground for about three weeks and was staying right next to Maclennan and her husband.
She said she was woken shortly before 5am on 22 January by Maclennan banging on her window.
“She’s like ‘Oh I’m so sorry I’m waking you up’, but the slip had pushed her campervan about a metre forward, so she said, ‘I’m just waking everyone up because I think everyone should move’.”
The woman moved her campervan straight away and Maclennan’s campervan was moved parallel to the shower block.
The woman said the group then went to the office, but there was no-one there.
She said Maclennan had tried ringing the emergency number at the campground and could not get hold of anybody.
The woman said Maclennan told her she was going to try calling Civil Defence. It was at that moment the woman called police.
Shortly before, she took some photos and video of one of three slips, including one right at her campsite. An image, supplied to RNZ, was timestamped at 6.15am and the video, which shows the slips, was taken a minute later.
A call log provided by the woman confirms she called police at 6.18am. The outgoing call lasted eight minutes.
“I explained to them about the slips. I said, ‘look, I understand that you guys will be really busy, and this might not be anything, but this is what’s happened here’.
“It was enough to push the ladies’ campervan forward, and there’s a homeless man in the toilet block, and he was actually going crazy and sort of banging on the walls and smashing things.
“And so I said, maybe you should send someone to have a look at that, just in case. You know, there’s a lot of kids here… and they said, yeah, it is a really busy night. It’s been a busy night. It’s a busy morning, we’ll try and get a unit there.”
The woman said no-one arrived until about 7.45am, when she said she saw what she described as a ute that was sign-written with Tauranga City Council. The ute stopped and the woman says she called out, “Look, I don’t know if you can see them from where you are, but there’s these slips up here, I think, you know, someone should look at them.”
The woman was unsure the man heard her. The woman said the ute then drove through the Pilot Bay side of the campground slowly past the slips that she had filmed directly in front of several campsites.
“I figured, well, everything will be fine. Someone from the council’s come, they’ve seen the slips, he’s driven past them, he’s driven through the water that was coming down from that corner that collapsed. So I had no worries after that.”
FENZ has confirmed it first received a 111 call at 5.48am on Thursday, 22 January. Alan Gibson – GIBSON IMAGES LTD
Fire and Emergency New Zealand
In response to earlier questions from RNZ, deputy national commander Megan Stiffler confirmed FENZ received a 111 call at 5.48am on Thursday from a person reporting a slip near the Mount Maunganui Beachside Holiday Park.
“Our call takers made contact with the Tauranga City Council, the landowners of the camping ground, and notified them of this information at 5.51am.
“The landslip that was referenced in the 111 call received at 5.48am did not impact life or property and therefore Fire and Emergency did not respond firefighters to attend, instead we notified Tauranga City Council as the landowner responsible.”
Speaking to the NZ Herald, Tauranga City Council chief executive Marty Grenfell said there was no record of a 111 call being referred to the council.
However, a council statement released only hours later backtracked on this version of events.
“After further enquiries, we can confirm that the Tauranga City Council’s main Contact Centre received a call from Fire and Emergency New Zealand at around 5.50am on Thursday, 22 January.”
The council said the chief executive’s earlier comments referred specifically to information logged in the council’s Emergency Operations Centre, which did not receive a call.
Tauranga Mayor Mahé Drysdale confirmed council staff were at the campground at the time of the slip. RNZ
Tauranga City Council
Tauranga mayor Mahé Drysdale spoke with Midday Report on Wednesday. Asked whether he thought the campground could or should have been evacuated, he said he was not going to be “drawn on a conclusion yet”.
“Until we’ve actually seen you know exactly the timeline, exactly who knew what when, but I can absolutely assure people, you know when, when we’ve got all that information in front of me, that… we will act appropriately. We will understand and and obviously, you know, the important thing is learning from this tragedy.”
Drysdale confirmed some staff were at the campground at the time of the slip.
He was unable to say how many, as there were several different teams.
Drysdale did not know what the Council did after they were notified by FENZ at 5.51am.
Asked about RNZ’s article about a local council representative driving through the Mount Maunganui campground and directly past three slips about two hours before the landslide, Drysdale said he he did not “have the absolute detail”.
“This is the problem… there’s a lot of information, and we need to verify that information absolutely,” he said.
“I don’t have a accurate or verified, you know, case of where all our staff were when they were there, what they knew, what they didn’t know. That is absolutely something that we need to find out.”
Police
In response to questions from RNZ, a police spokesperson confirmed police received an emergency call at 6.18am in relation to a disorder incident that had occurred at the campsite.
“During the call, the informant also referenced a potential landslip.
“Police did not attend as it was unclear whether the disorder resulted in any property damage.
“Fire and Emergency New Zealand were earlier alerted to the slip, and the council was in turn notified.”
Between 5am and 9.30am in the Mount Maunganui area, Police received one other call about a slip on the base track.
“The informant left the area safely and noted cones had been placed to restrict further access.”
Three of the landslide victims Max Furse-Kee, Sharon Maccanico and Susan Knowles. SUPPLIED
What about a review?
On Tuesday, the Prime Minister Christopher Luxon said there was a “strong case” for a government inquiry into the landslide.
He announced the possibility during a media conference and said many questions about last Thursday’s slip were being asked, including whether there was a missed opportunity to evacuate people sooner.
“Six families are grieving the unimaginable loss of their loved ones, and they deserve answers. I acknowledge that the Tauranga City Council has ordered its own inquiry into the events leading up to the landslide at the campground.
“However, I do believe there is a strong case for an independent government inquiry, and we’ll be talking to Tauranga City Council about that.”
Luxon said it would be important not only for the grieving families but for helping to ensure lessons were learned to prevent similar tragedies in the future.
While an independent inquiry had already been announced by local council, Luxon said there were concerns it would not be impartial if it was conducted by the council.
“There’s a potentially an inherent conflict between the ownership of the campground and the council, but it’s also coming from conversations directly with the families that Mark and I had in the last 48 hours with people in Tauranga at the Mount, and their big desires to actually understand what did happen here.
“I think doing that dispassionately, being able to do that very objectively, through an independent government inquiry would be the way forward.”
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon said there is a “strong case” for a government inquiry into the landslide. Calvin Samuel / RNZ
Asked about a review on Wednesday, Drysdale said the council would “certainly do something”.
“We just don’t want to, I guess, stamp on the government’s toes. So we’re just working in with them at the moment, understanding what they’re doing, and that will help shape exactly what we do.
“But we need to know the actions of our employees. We need to know what was done, what the facts were, establish exactly what happened, and then understand whether everyone within our organisation acted appropriately and the decisions were made when they should have been.”
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– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand
