Our thoughts are with all New Zealanders who have suffered injuries, property damage and personal loss as a result of Cyclone Gabrielle. We extend our deepest sympathies and aroha to those who have lost loved ones.
The safety and wellbeing of our staff and people in prison, and the continued delivery of our services in prisons and the community are our highest priorities.
All prisons, including Hawke's Bay Regional Prison, were well prepared for the severe weather and are fully operational. Our facilities have not been significantly impacted by the severe weather, with some undertaking minor repairs. We have been communicating with people in prison and are encouraging them to check in with family and whānau.
A small number of Community Corrections offices have temporarily closed, with alternative arrangements made for people required to report-in to our sites. Our coordinated response efforts continue to focus on supporting our people in Hawke’s Bay, Gisborne, Wairoa, Napier, Hastings, and other parts of the East Coast.
Public safety remains our absolute priority. We have robust plans in place to ensure we can continue to monitor people serving community-based sentences during a range of different situations, including power and communications outages caused by weather events. Our staff are working extremely closely with local Police to keep our communities safe at this time.
We also support efforts by New Zealand Police to establish contact with individuals who have not yet been heard from. Anyone who has not yet been able to make contact are encouraged to register themselves using an online form provided by Police to mark themselves safe and well.
Thank you to our frontline staff, security contractors, service providers, and our colleagues right across the public sector for your professionalism and commitment to keeping people safe during this time.
We will continue to provide updates here as response efforts continue.