Building new houses higher off the ground and basing Civil Defence staff in Napier are two of the suggestions coming out of a review into the Napier floods.
A car drives through floodwaters in Napier last November. Photo: Supplied / James Crow
The heavy rain event last November caused damage to hundreds of properties.
Almost 10 months on, some people are still in temporary accommodation.
Local leaders examined what could be done better in a meeting yesterday.
In the early afternoon, on 9 November last year, the rain in Napier was undoubtedly heavy but nobody seemed particularly worried.
Hawke's Bay regional council hazard reduction team leader Lisa Pearse said earlier weather warnings were not serious.
"Our first warning was received on 8 November and it was 9.30 in the morning," she said.
"It identified areas north of Napier with falls of about 120 to 160 mm, but significantly they were sort of saying in that stage it would be in the ranges."
The next day, on the morning of the floods, MetService rang the council and told them the rain could fall south of Napier - again, not in the city.
Pearse said the predictions were not unusual.
"From a normal perspective, we get warnings like this reasonably regularly in Hawke's Bay, say 2 or 3 times a year, and so there was nothing sort of concerning to most of the staff at this point."
By 4pm, with the rain in the city getting heavier and heavier, forecasts still claimed the downpour would hit the mountains.
Within an hour, Pearse said people were rushing to evacuate.
Slips on Brewster Street, Napier, during the flooding. Photo: RNZ / Dom Thomas
"The majority of evacuations were self-evacuation and that was really good to see from our perspective because it was a surprise event, and so there wasn't much time to get warnings out to residents."
Management at the Napier Fire Station was warned of the rain at 10am, but did not contact the region's Civil Defence controller until late in the afternoon, when they saw it getting worse outside.
111 call centres were quickly overwhelmed, and a state of emergency was not declared until after 8pm.
Napier Mayor Kirsten Wise said not having a Civil Defence team based in Napier was, and remained, a problem.
Kirsten Wise. Photo: RNZ / Dom Thomas
"As far as I'm aware, that wasn't even considered as an option and it certainly made it more difficult, having them located in Hastings."
The regional council's principal engineer Craig Goodier said newer houses in Te Awa estates, in one of the lowest parts of the city and where the rain was heaviest, were not damaged.
This was because the land was raised higher in new subdivision developments.
"If we're talking about new housing, perhaps we should be using minimum ground elevations of 1.5 metres above sea level and 2 metres above sea level for the floor elevation," he said.
The regional council's engineering team leader Craig Goodier said newer houses in Te Awa estates, in one of the lowest parts of the city and where the rain was heaviest, were not damaged.
That was because houses were built a bit higher and Goodier recommended that should be the case around the entire city.
"If we're talking about new housing, perhaps we should be using minimum elevations of 1.5 and 2 metres," he said.
Regional council and civil defence committee chair Rick Barker said while there were challenges, he would not play the blame game.
"The problem we have with these sorts of reports is there are those around who wish to point and blame, because humans do have a penchant for bloodsports. But we're going to do our best to avoid that, just to pick it up, move forward and be better prepared for the next one."
There were 173 evacuees of the flood, with seven still living at a council holiday park.
NB: This story has been updated after its first publication, to reflect a clarification in engineering information.
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