Rescue team back cyclone response effort

All the way up north and little or nothing to do.

But the Surf Life Saving NZ Southern swiftwater rescue team is not complaining; it is better to be safe than sorry.

The seven-strong team headed to Auckland late last week to help out, expecting a heavy workload with Cyclone Vaianu bearing down on the North Island.

But the weather was not as bad as predicted and the team was not too busy, returning home yesterday.

Team member Brent Matehaere said there was plenty of rain around and flooding, but not a lot to do.

The team went to Paihia in the Far North on Saturday and then the cyclone bypassed much of Auckland.

There were plans at one stage to head to Western Bay of Plenty, but they had enough people in the area.

Mr Matehaere said it was better to be prepared and to put resources where they were needed in the expectation that something could happen than to be reactionary and get caught short.

‘‘Having been to [Cyclone] Gabrielle and having seen the devastation that happened there, the challenges that the teams had there and they had a reasonably large number of teams, actually, and drivers and stuff to react straight away.

‘‘I'm well in support of what we've done in terms of ensuring, you know, the safety of the public and also the support of the teams up north that are certainly pretty stretched.’’

He said staff in the Far North, where the team had been, were really stretched and had dealt with multiple call-outs this summer.

The team had two boats and an incident control unit.

It was not disappointing the southern team had little to do, he said .

‘‘You think if we're having to do something, that means somebody's having a really, really bad day and if that really bad day turns into fatality, then that's hard on everyone.’’