Mr Hawkins conceded they might have been "a bit lax".
"Our focus [on Tuesday] was on dealing with a heavy rain event and supporting our community through that," Mr Hawkins said.
"And at that point in the evening our conversations were focused on whether or not we were going to need to evacuate people from their homes and that was our priority."
The mayor posted the image on his Facebook page, prompting some people to observe lack of mask usage.
Masks have been used as a tool to keep Covid-19 infection rates in check.
Mr Hawkins was exasperated when the issue was raised by the Otago Daily Times, and he suggested "gotcha politics" were at play, or the newspaper’s priorities were askew.
"Yes, there were people wearing masks in the bunker," Mr Hawkins said.
"Yes, there were protocols in place for managing that.
"Yes, people probably were a bit lax from time to time in that situation, because our focus and our priority was on dealing with an extreme weather event and the risks that that posed to our community."
