Dear Editor, I am writing to express my deep concern and disappointment regarding the poor performance and lack of proper communication from Emergency Management Cook Islands (EMCI) during the passage of Tropical Cyclone Wati over the weekend.
Throughout the entire event, there was a glaring absence of official, coordinated communication. Relying almost entirely on Facebook posts that merely copy-pasted weather reports directly from the Fiji Meteorological Service is completely unacceptable for a primary government response entity. It raises a serious question: did EMCI deliberately overlook or downplay this disaster simply because early predictions suggested it might be minor? A disaster management agency must prepare for the worst, not hope for the best at the expense of public safety.
The vacuum left by EMCI’s silence forced local radio announcers I heard last Sunday on Radio Cook Islands to step in and broadcast their own interpretations of the weather data they found on social media - on the spot. While the radio broadcasters are to be commended for trying to keep the public informed, it is absolutely not their duty or professional responsibility to act as the nation's primary emergency communicators.
The public relies on EMCI for accurate, timely, and authoritative information during a crisis. Leaving the community in the dark and forcing people to rely on second-hand interpretations is a severe failure of public duty. And they are mostly in english. We deserve better accountability and a drastic improvement in communication strategies before the next major event hits our shores.
Dear Lord, please help us!
EMCI response
Dear Editor,
We thank your correspondent for raising concerns about public communication during Tropical Cyclone Wati, and we welcome the opportunity to set out what took place.
Emergency Management Cook Islands began monitoring this system on Wednesday 14 October, when the Cook Islands Meteorological Service first alerted us to a tropical disturbance near Pukapuka. From that day we provided daily situation reports to Cabinet, island response teams and Puna members were placed on standby, and the National Disaster Council met on 16 October as the system strengthened. We moved into the Warning Phase that same day, two days before the cyclone reached the Southern Group. At no stage was this event downplayed.
Official weather warnings for the Cook Islands are issued by the Cook Islands Meteorological Service, which draws on the regional cyclone centre in Nadi, Fiji. Our role is to make sure those warnings, and the advice that goes with them, reach people through as many channels as possible. During Wati this included SMS alerts to the Southern Group, television, radio and social media, alongside updates from the Meteorological Service, Police, Cook Islands Tourism and island administrations. Our public messages were checked against the latest verified Meteorological Service bulletins before release. We also thank Radio Cook Islands and other media for helping keep the public informed.
This sat alongside the response on the ground. Emergency Operations Centres were activated across the Pa Enua, residents in Mauke were moved away from the coast, fallen trees on Aitutaki and Rarotonga were cleared within hours, and fuel and food support was arranged for Pukapuka and Nassau.
We agree that public information must be timely, clear and in the languages, our people speak, including Cook Islands Māori. This feedback will form part of our review of Tropical Cyclone Wati, alongside work already under way to strengthen early warning, including Cell Broadcast technology that will send urgent alerts directly to mobile phones.
Meitaki ma’ata to everyone who prepared, kept watch and looked after one another. We will keep working to do better before the next event.
John Strickland
Director,
Emergency Management Cook Islands