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Drawing on his own experience of leading a school through loss, the former principal says the impact of the Mount Maunganui and Pāpāmoa tragedies will be felt far beyond those directly affected.
Former East Auckland school principal Murray Burton says communities across the country will be reeling after the Mount Maunganui and Pāpāmoa landslides, as grieving families and a school community face a long road ahead.
There were two separate landslides in the Bay of Plenty on January 22.
Emergency services confirmed two people were recovered from a house on Welcome Bay Road in Pāpāmoa on Thursday evening after it was extensively damaged by a landslide earlier in the day. Both were pronounced dead. They are believed to be a young boy who died with a relative.
A landslide in Mount Maunganui on the same day resulted in six people being unaccounted for. But today, January 24, police said they had moved into a recovery rather than rescue phase of the search operation.
Police this afternoon released the names of all six people.
Bay of Plenty District Commander Tim Anderson said the operation was handed over to Police by Fire and Emergency New Zealand at 11.20am today.
“Search teams have been working through the slip layer by layer, but tragically it is now apparent that we will not be able to bring them home alive,” he said.
Two East Auckland students from Pakūranga College are among the six people confirmed dead. Their names are Sharon Maccanico, 15, and Max Furse-Kee, 15.
Also named among the fatalities was Lisa Anne Maclennan, 50, a staff member from Morrinsville Intermediate School, Måns Loke Bernhardsson, 20, from Sweden, Jacqualine Suzanne Wheeler, 71, of Rotorua and Susan Doreen Knowles, 71, of Ngongotahā.
Burton, principal of Elim Christian College for 22 years before stepping down in 2024, led his own community through tragedy in April 2008, when six students and a teacher from the college were killed in a flash flood in the Mangatepopo Gorge during a school camp.
The students were taking part in a canyoning activity when they were swept away. The seven who died were part of a group of about 40 students on a camp at the then Sir Edmund Hillary Outdoor Pursuits Centre.
It was on April 15, 2008, when Natasha Bray, 16, Portia McPhail 16, Huan (Tom) Hsu, 16, Anthony Mulder, 16, Floyd Fernandes, 16, Tara Gregory, 16 and teacher Anthony McClean, 29 died in the accident.
Now, Burton says he has reached out to Pakūranga College principal Billy Merchant to offer support following the deaths of students Sharon Maccanico and Max Furse-Kee.
“An unspeakable tragedy has unfolded in Mt Maunganui and Pāpāmoa. Communities throughout our country will be reeling,” Burton told the Franklin Times.
“As we stand alongside the grieving families there will be massive grief, shock, multiple questions, devastation and a fresh awareness there are many things we cannot control.”
He said the impact extends well beyond the immediate families, with a school community now facing the start of a new year under devastating circumstances.
“Not only do we have the grieving families of Sharon Maccanico and Max Fursee-kee, but a grieving school – Pakūranga College about to start the new school year,” Burton said.
“Expectations, a fresh start, new beginnings, opportunities, friendships renewed, new activities embraced – all start of the year stuff these precious two will now never experience again.”
Burton said schools are often the central support structure for communities in times of loss and would need to provide care for an extended period.
“An essential hub of a community, the school, will now step up to provide a net of care for many months even years to come,” he said.
He outlined the range of support required, including careful engagement with media, access to counselling, clear communication with parents, and sensitive, ongoing support for whānau and loved ones.
“It will help the school community to work with the media to share such a sad story whilst taking opportunities to celebrate the lives of those lost,” he said.
“Relying on the work and wisdom of counsellors. Sharing key positive messages of guidance to the student body to hold school culture. Sensitive and ongoing support for the whānau and wider loved ones and building a bridge for the whānau in the long grief journey in front of them.”
Burton said schools must also remain alert to the ways grief can resurface over time.
“Keeping a watch for student reactions when events, team selections or activities come around in which Sharon and Max would have or may have been involved,” he said.
“Hosting whānau when they visit the school or wish talk in particular to a school leader – this all means so much.”
Clear and timely communication with families was also critical, he said.
“Talking about this loss in a newsletter or communications via website or social media with immediacy and keeping parents informed as to what the school is doing, in the light of this tragic loss will help to process the grief,” Burton said.
Burton urged the wider East Auckland community to rally around those affected.
“As an East Auckland community, let’s step up to support these families and this school,” he said.
