Cyclone Gabrielle inquest

The story so far

A coroner's inquest is examining deaths caused by Cyclone Gabrielle and the Auckland Anniversary floods, with coroner Erin Woolley investigating the deaths.^{6, 7 Oct 2025; 10 Nov 2025} Reports give the number of deaths under investigation as 18 and 19.^{6 Oct 2025; 10 Nov 2025} The inquest has heard distressing 111 call evidence, including that some people stranded on Hawke's Bay roofs waited nearly an hour to connect and were told there was no timeline for rescue.^{7 Oct 2025} Engineers at a Hastings hearing said damage estimates relied on MetService rain predictions that were significantly lower than actual rainfall, and that peak water discharge was more than double the 2018 Esk Valley flood.^{13 Oct 2025} The acting group controller for Hawke's Bay Civil Defence, Edaan Lennan, defended the delay in issuing an emergency evacuation alert, saying he feared sending it could have put lives at risk.^{10 Nov 2025}

Latest

The disappearance of a missing person was added to the inquest's scope in October.^{6 Oct 2025}

Key moments

1. 6 Oct 2025Missing person's disappearance added to inquest into cyclone and flood deaths
2. 7 Oct 2025Distressing 111 calls heard; people on roofs waited nearly an hour
3. 13 Oct 2025MetService rain predictions found significantly lower than actual rainfall
4. 10 Nov 2025Civil Defence leader defends delayed evacuation alert during cyclone

Written from the stories below; each sentence links to its sources.