NOW OR NEVER
Whakaari/White Island disaster: Attempt to recover bodies today
Authorities are in a race against time as they try to recover bodies from Whakaari/White Island today before the bodies are entombed in the volcanic landscape and rescuers are put at risk.
Police said last night that Defence Force personnel would deploy to the island soon after first light today. Deputy Police Commissioner Mike Clement said the team had been working on a plan for recovery yesterday.
As locals and experts warned of a narrowing window as volcanic rumbles continue, Clement said: ‘‘We don’t expect anything to change overnight or tomorrow with regard to the risk on White Island.
‘‘We will play things by ear, literally, we will make calls as the morning goes by.’’ The chances of success would be determined by things out of the organisers’ control, he said. The team going to the island would make ‘‘every effort’’ to recover the bodies and return them to the HMNZS Wellington.
‘‘As the morning progresses, it will become clear if the plan is working. A lot has to go right for this to work.’’ The priority was getting the bodies off first and quickly, he said.
The families had offered ‘‘overwhelming support’’ for the plans but ‘‘no careless loss of life is going to make the situation better’’.
Clement said his biggest concern was the unpredictable volcano. Other concerns were the weather, the direction of the wind and the state of the sea. He expected the operation to take most of the morning. About eight people would be going onto the island.
Asked by Stuff what the plan was if there was an eruption, he said staff would be wearing protective equipment and GNS scientists would be on hand offering minute-by-minute advice.
He would not give a timeframe for how quickly the people could be retrieved from the island if it started erupting.
Asked how he was feeling, Clement said: ‘‘Of course I’m worried, I wouldn’t be human if I was not worried.’’
The official death toll from the eruption on Monday afternoon now stands at eight. Eight more are still missing, presumed dead, on the island.
However, the death toll is expected to rise significantly as many of those in hospital battle life-threatening injuries.
Two of the latest victims,
Matthew Hollander, 13, and his brother Berend, 16, died while being treated at Waikato and Middlemore hospitals.
Meanwhile, about 20 people are still being treated at seven hospitals throughout the country.
Yesterday, four flights took seven Australian patients across the Tasman.
Deputy Police Commissioner John Tims said families would be briefed on the recovery plan before further details were released.
But Whakata¯ne helicopter hero Mark Law outlined a chilling scenario where ash and the island’s acidic environment could potentially forever entomb the eight victims on Whakaari if officials waited for the volcanic activity to stop.
A vulcanologist backed him up, saying it was common for ash and water to mix after an eruption, creating a cement-like mixture and potentially hampering recovery.
Speaking before the recovery was announced, Law said he feared the eight bodies could be buried under ash or begin to disintegrate in the island’s acidic environment.
‘‘The acidity of the island ... always has been brutal.’’
If more ash fell on the bodies, followed by rain, the mixture could set and bury the victims where they lay, he said.
There has been intermittent rain in Whakata¯ne, 50km from the island, over the past day, but it is unclear if rain has fallen on the island.
‘‘If acidity doesn’t break the people down, then they could get covered.’’
Phil Shane, an associate professor of geology at the University of Auckland, said ash particles could cement together and harden when wet.
He said it was a common phenomenon in ash fall, though he believed it would still be possible to extract the bodies from the hardened mixture.
Perceptions of risk among experts in Whakata¯ne had put them off so far, but the harsh acidic environment could hasten decomposition.
The risks of recovering the bodies were outlined by Deputy Commissioner Mike Clement earlier yesterday. He said it would take at least 15 minutes on foot once crews landed on the island to get to the point where the bodies were gathered.
It was confirmed that a Nga¯ ti Awa tohunga would accompany the recovery team to the island to conduct the necessary cultural requirements and provide spiritual support to the recovery team.
Clement said that because of the toxicity on the island, it was possible the remains could pose a risk to those who retrieved them.
He had to consider whether attempts to gather evidence from around the bodies were possible.
An iwi leader said if the recovery did not go ahead, it could spell the end of tourism on the island.
Nga¯ ti Awa elder and cultural adviser Pouroto Ngaropo said if the bodies stayed on the island, it became ‘‘tapu forever more’’.
‘‘If the bodies end up staying on Whakaari, it becomes a state of tapu, it becomes a cemetery, a living breathing ancestor that becomes a resting place for our distinguished dead.’’