October was a significant month and milestone for the Ministry, with John Hamilton’s retirement on 31 October. 

John was farewelled over a series of functions in his last two weeks at the Ministry, which generated much laughter and also some tears; and all recognised the enormous contribution John has made to CDEM over the last eight years. Despite finishing on 31 October, John was a keynote speaker at the National Lifelines Forum on 5 November, so I think it is likely we will still see him around the place every now and then!

The Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet is undertaking the selection process for the Director role, and in the meantime the Ministry continues to progress a busy work programme in the run-up to Christmas.

As you will see in this edition of e-Bulletin, a number of the Ministry’s publications are currently being reviewed or developed, including final amendments being made to the revised National CDEM Plan expected to be completed in December.  

The workload certainly won’t decrease in the new year, with planning now underway for New Zealand Shakeout 2015 – the national earthquake preparedness campaign which will culminate in a nationwide Drop, Cover, Hold drill on 15 October 2015 – and preliminary planning also underway for the next national exercise to be held August/September 2016.

With 2015 and beyond in mind, I trust that you will all have a restful (and thoroughly uneventful) Christmas break so that you can return refreshed and ready for what is shaping up as a busy year ahead. 

Sarah Stuart-Black
Acting Director

Photo: (Left to right):  David Coetzee, Brendan Morris, William Power, Richard Steele, and Lisa Pearse at the Tsunami Land-Use and Evacuation Planning Workshop in Gisborne.

A Tsunami Land-Use and Evacuation Planning Workshop was held in Gisborne, 15 and 16 October 2014.

The workshop was hosted by Gisborne CDEM Group and was attended by 40 people from across CDEM, central government agencies and the science research sector.  The workshop was funded by the CDEM resilience fund in support of tsunami risk reduction.

The intention of the workshop was to clarify current tsunami science research, specific to land use and evacuation planning. Presentations were provided by GNS, MCDEM, CDEM and consultants in the risk reduction space. Interactive sessions on day two of the workshop gave attendees the opportunity to provide feedback on the workshop objectives. These included: how do we achieve consistency in evacuation planning/land use planning? And, how can we collectively make this happen?

The workshop was highly collaborative and resulted in identification of opportunities and potential future work. The Gisborne Herald featured the photo above of the smiley organisation team, commending their efforts.

Special thanks goes to Richard Steele, Group Manager, Gisborne CDEM Group, for his excellent organisation of the event and Lisa Pearse, Emergency Management Coordinator – Hazards from Hawkes Bay CDEM Group, and Brendan Morris who facilitated the event.

Article submitted by Sarah-Jayne McCurrach
Team Leader Hazard Risk Management and Analysis, MCDEM

Photo: Hamish Keith, Planning and Intelligence Advisor, coaches Chantelle Subritzky (ACES) on the Planning and Intelligence desk during a recent exercise.

Auckland CDEM staff recently participated in a learning preferences workshop within the team training programme delivered by Steph James, Senior Training and Capability Advisor.

Commonly known as VARK which stands for Visual, Auditory, Read/Write and Kinaesthetic, this approach to training adds that meaningful layer of activity learners often talk about when describing “engaging” presentations or training sessions.

Trainers both experienced and new to delivery can add VARK to their toolkit by sharing successful activities and creating new ones.

By way of an introduction to the VARK approach, the Auckland CDEM team tested for their own preferences (which were varied) and learnt what these meant.  Later in the workshop, the Auckland Council Emergency Support staff (ACES) joined the team.  ACES were also tested for their learning preference and CDEM staff described for them in a one on one discussion, what their results meant.

As well as adding to, or refreshing, CDEM trainer skills, the workshop had several positive outcomes. One outcome was the CDEM team continuing to better know each other, and another was an engaging discussion between CDEM staff and ACES.

Article submitted by Steph James
Senior Training and Capability Advisor, Auckland Council

In the early hours of Friday 17 October, emergency services notionally responded to a chemical spill that had contaminated the stormwater systems across the eastern suburbs of Auckland.  This was the background setting for an Auckland Welfare exercise ‘Toxic Plume’.  As the scenario played out, a 48 hours mandatory evacuation for affected residents was required.

The evacuation required a Civil Defence Centre (CDC) to be activated and the Auckland Welfare Coordination Group (AWCG) convened to support the response.

Exercise ‘Toxic Plume’ was a dual tabletop and operational exercise to practise our emergency arrangements to support impacted communities in an emergency.

AWCG conducted a tabletop exercise for the scenario on the Friday and were located adjacent to the CDC.  This enabled the AWCG representative to observe the CDC operations.

A CDC operational exercise was conducted simultaneously to provide an opportunity to practise an integrated, multi-agency welfare response.  There were lots of key learnings gained and everyone enjoyed the opportunity to work alongside their agency partners.

Article by Paul Read
Emergency Management Advisor, Auckland Council

MCDEM Public Education Advisor Bridget Cheesman, right, will be coordinating New Zealand ShakeOut 2015, and will be working closely with MCDEM Emergency Management Advisor Anita Walker, left, who co-coordinated New Zealand ShakeOut 2012.

Planning is underway for New Zealand ShakeOut 2015, with representatives for three governance groups confirmed and the date set for 15 October 2015.

New Zealand ShakeOut is a national earthquake preparedness campaign, leading to a nationwide earthquake drill. It’s based on the Great Southern California ShakeOut, which was first held in 2008 and has since become a global phenomenon, with more states in the US and other countries participating each year.

The objectives for New Zealand ShakeOut are to ensure people throughout New Zealand understand the right actions to take in an earthquake – Drop, Cover and Hold – and to promote earthquake planning and discussion by individuals, families and organisations in the lead up the drill.

The 2015 date ties in with international ShakeOut events and has the approval of the Ministry of Education.

Representatives have been confirmed for the Governance Group (the “big tickers”), Steering Group (the “good news spreaders”) and Planning Groups (the “do-ers”) for New Zealand ShakeOut 2015, and each group will meet this December to start the planning process.

Bridget Cheesman, Public Education Advisor for the Ministry of Civil Defence & Emergency Management has been appointed as the New Zealand ShakeOut Coordinator and will take the lead on the campaign, working closely with Anita Walker. Anita heads up the National Civil Defence Emergency Management Exercise Programme and co-coordinated New Zealand ShakeOut 2012.

For any questions related to ShakeOut, please email shakeout@dpmc.govt.nz or call Bridget on (04) 817 8562.

Governance Group
Sarah Stuart-Black, Ministry of Civil Defence & Emergency Management
Suze Strowger, Ministry of Education
Mike Reid, Local Government New Zealand
Richard Smith, EQC

Steering Group
Bridget Cheesman, Ministry of Civil Defence & Emergency Management
Anita Walker, Ministry of Civil Defence & Emergency Management
Lesley Porter, Ministry of Education
Jane Watson-Baker, Ministry of Social Development
Angie Perry, Ministry of Health
Julia Becker, GNS Science
Murray McLeod, Te Puni Kōkiri
Jo Martin, EQC
John Lucas, Insurance Council
Alicia Palmer, CDEM Groups’ Representative

Planning Group
Bridget Cheesman, Ministry of Civil Defence & Emergency Management
Anita Walker, Ministry of Civil Defence & Emergency Management
Naomi Luckett, CDEM Groups’ Representative
Drew Broadley, Hawke’s Bay Regional Council
Victoria Walker, Auckland Council
Michele Poole, Queenstown Lakes District Council
Drew Mehrtens, Thames-Coromandel District Council

Preliminary planning has begun for the next Tier 4 (national) CDEM exercise to be held in 2016. This exercise will involve all 16 CDEM Groups and partner agencies at national and local levels.

A tsunami theme has been selected by the National CDEM Exercise Programme Governance Group. Members of the group have already highlighted a number of response and recovery aspects they would like to test during the exercise, and therefore a phased approach will be taken. The dates for the exercise have been confirmed, so please put them in your diary now!

Phase 1: Wednesday 31 August 2016 (one day). This will focus on response up to tsunami impact.
Phase 2: Wednesday 14 September 2016 (one day). This will focus on post tsunami impact.
Phase 3: Wednesday 28 September 2016 (one day). This will focus on post tsunami impact.

We will look to form a planning team early next year, and it will be up to this team to decide on further aspects of the exercise. So if you would like to be a part of the planning team, keep an eye out early next year for a formal call.

If you have any questions, please contact Anita Walker at the Ministry on (04) 817 8587 or anita.walker@dpmc.govt.nz
 

The Canterbury Group put the EMIS registration system to the test on 29 October.

The aim of the two hour test was for our Emergency Managers and Welfare Managers to become more familiar with EMIS, particularly to trial inputting data from the paper forms, as well as using EMIS across multiple sites at once.

Key to the success of the day was to create enough data to enter into EMIS as it was not a full welfare centre exercise. This was achieved through asking visitors to fill out the two page paper form in the weeks leading up to the event. Selwyn took this one step further, involving community members on the day. In all we managed to enter 583 registrations across nine sites.

Each participating local authority filled out an evaluation form. These have been collated and will form the basis of our ‘next steps’ with EMIS welfare.

As a result of the test, Canterbury has developed a naming convention for welfare centres, Region - Local Authority – CDC, to make them easy to locate on EMIS, for example Canterbury – Selwyn – Lincoln Events Centre. Also identified for further work were some small changes to the paper form to make it easier to input the data, and how to approach group registrations using EMIS.

Canterbury Group has shared the evaluations with the Ministry of Civil Defence & Emergency Management.

If you are interested in knowing more detail email Jessica.petersen@cdemcanterbury.govt.nz

Article submitted by Jessica Petersen
Community Resilience Coordinator, Canterbury Civil Defence Emergency Management Group

The Ministry’s Emergency Management Information System (EMIS) has recently received a mapping upgrade. The upgrade includes a new ESRI mapping for SharePoint plug in (2.1.1), an upgrade to ArcGIS 10.22 and a rebuild of the locators, which interpret address data and plot it on the map, along with other layers of data such as locations of Civil Defence Centres and roads (pictured above).

The new system is much more capable of consuming data (web services) from other ArcGIS services, contains more tools and is easier to use. For more information on this new tool, please contact your local EMIS Point of Contact.

Photo: Red Cross volunteers and “victims” at the site of a simulated aircraft crash on the approach to Queenstown airport earlier this month.

Over the weekend of 8 and 9 November, Queenstown was invaded by a red army intent on doing good. Sixty Red Cross volunteers from Queenstown, Dunedin, Invercargill, Gore, Timaru and Christchurch assembled in Queenstown for the Lower South Island exercise weekend.

On Saturday morning, teams were presented with a mass casualty incident based on a large passenger aircraft that had crashed just short of the runway. The simulation included 45 casualties, burning wreckage, luggage and personal belongings scattered throughout the crash area.

Teams worked alongside Airport Crash Fire personnel and Queenstown Fire Service personnel to extract victims to a Casualty Clearing Point (CCP) where medical care was provided. In the late afternoon, teams completed activities including USAR rubble pile line and hail, and received instruction on how to assemble their air shelter. This was followed by team building activities in the evening and a BBQ.

On the Sunday morning, teams received a presentation of a recent Red Cross response to Philippines, followed by another exercise where they responded to a large gas explosion, extracting a further 25 casualties.

Queenstown Lakes and Central Otago emergency management officer Trevor Andrews commented on the impressive array of equipment, resources and well trained personnel on display over the weekend.

“After seeing the capability of the Red Cross over the weekend I feel much more confident that a well-trained and readily deployable rescue force is available to me and the communities in Otago,” he said.

Article submitted by Trevor Andrews
Emergency Management Officer, Queenstown Lakes and Central Otago

The revised National CDEM Plan was released by the Minister for public consultation on 23 May 2014 and consultation closed on 25 July 2014.

Following the close of public consultation, the Ministry has collated all submissions, and is analysing them and agreeing any necessary amendments in consultation with relevant agencies.  Final amendments to the revised Plan are currently being made in consultation with the Parliamentary Counsel Office and should be completed during December 2014. The final proposed Plan will then be submitted to Cabinet for approval and be made as an Order in Council in early 2015.

The Ministry has commenced its review of the supporting Guide to the revised National CDEM Plan (the Guide). The intention is to issue the draft revised Guide for external consultation following the making of the final National CDEM Plan.

Both the revised Plan and Guide will come into effect at the same time later in 2015.

A number of the Ministry’s other publications are currently being reviewed or developed, including:

CDEM Group Planning: Director’s Guideline. A survey seeking stakeholder feedback on this publication was issued in July 2013 and informed the development of the current draft. This guideline has been issued for external consultation and feedback closed on 29 August. Refinements will be made to the document in response to feedback. The final document will be published by the end of 2014.

Welfare in an Emergency: Director’s Guideline. Feedback from a stakeholder survey in February 2014 and the CDEM Group Welfare Forum held in March 2014 are informing the redevelopment of the Welfare in an Emergency: Director’s Guideline publication. The Ministry continues to work closely with CDEM welfare subject matter experts and national welfare agencies to clarify and document the revised arrangements for welfare services under the National CDEM Plan. Sector consultation will occur in early 2015.

CDEM Logistics: Director’s Guideline: External consultation closed on 17 October 2014.  Refinements will be made to the document in response to feedback. The final document will be published in mid-2015.

Operational Planning: Director’s Guideline: This publication is intended to help CDEM staff develop action plans during response or recovery, as well re-write procedures for the planning function in an ECC or EOC. Work on this guideline has just begun, and it will be issued for external consultation in early 2015, and is to be published by mid-2015. 

Recovery Management: Director’s Guideline (review and amalgamation of IS 5/05 Focus on Recovery and DGL 4/05 Recovery Management). A Recovery Management Workshop held in Hamilton on the 24 July was attended by experienced recovery managers from the CDEM sector. Interactive sessions were held, and feedback obtained during the workshop will help inform the review of the Recovery Management guidance in-line with the legislative review.  Due to the importance of aligning the revised Recovery guideline with other publications currently being reviewed (Welfare in an Emergency, Guide to the National CDEM Plan), and taking into consideration the alignment of CERA within DPMC, this project will not be completed until at least late 2015.

Photo: RT-5 team members assist the Waitakere Volunteer Fire Crew to dampen down the running track ahead of a local fireworks display.

November has been a full-on month for RT-5.

A Health and Safety Training Course on 1 November now has us up to speed with the new regulations that are coming into effect on 1 April 2015.

That was followed the same night helping the Waitakere Volunteer Fire Crew at a fireworks display. This entailed laying out hoses, wetting down the running track and being at the ready to assist in the event of fire; and we did have a fire when a small piece of scrub caught alight. It looked rather large at first, but burned down quickly and by the time the display had finished was all but out and only needed a small amount of water to put it out completely. Four of the team had backpack sprayers and they walked the outlying area to dampen down any smaller hot spots or smouldering fireworks. We finished up by packing away all of the hoses away and headed back to our headquarters and were off home by 2300hrs.

November 2 saw us back at our headquarters at 0445hrs and off into Auckland City to help with the marshalling for the Auckland Marathon. We spent the day helping people and vehicles cross the running track safely and providing information on where the local sightseeing bus was now located. We also cheered on the runners with one being a fellow team member.

On 5 November we put on a display at the Hellensville Crime Prevention day and on 23 November we will be part of the Glenfield Santa Parade and Gala.

Duane Gorst
RT-5 Team Leader

2nd - 6th March 2015
Massey University Campus, Wellington

This course will help you better understand how your organisation can prepare for, respond to, and recover from a disaster.

Emergency managers and social and physical scientists form part of the multi-disciplinary team that explores relationships between the physical and social aspects of natural hazards and their management. This course is designed for those involved in all aspects of emergency management: planners, educators, engineers, local and central government policy makers, insurance managers, researchers, emergency managers and utility and property owners.

The programme has been developed to provide a theoretical and practical introduction to selected topics relating to emergency management. Each course will begin with an introduction and review of New Zealand and international research and practice. The topics will then be explored through a series of relevant case studies. The final session of each module will provide practical tools and guidance for turning the 'theory to practice'.

For a Summer Institute brochure and enrolment form visit the website or email d.barton@gns.cri.nz

From 2015 the Summer Institute will also be part of the Massey University paper 130.706 Emergency Management in Practice (30 credits). If you are enrolled in the Massey paper you will automatically be enrolled for the Summer Institute, at no additional cost. However, you do not need to be enrolled in the paper to attend the Summer Institute.  For more information, check out Massey University’s Emergency Management teaching programme.

More information is available online at http://www.massey.ac.nz/massey/learning/departments/school-of-psychology/research/disaster-research/disaster-research_home.cfm
 

Are your supplies of blue or yellow Get Ready Get Thru shopping bags running low? We are looking into co-ordinating another print run (if there is enough demand).

The cost per bag will depend on how many we collectively order (from $0.99 to $1.68). The turnaround time is about three months from when we place the order.

If you are interested in ordering more bags, please email Bridget Cheesman, Public Education Advisor, at bridget.cheesman@dpmc.govt.nz and indicate how many you require and which colour(s), by Friday 28 November.

Dunedin City is upgrading their Emergency Operations Centre identification vests, using colours in line with the second edition Coordinated Incident Management System manual.

These vests are being made to order, and the manufacturers have suggested other Emergency Operations Centres may want to order vests at this time to make the manufacturing process easier.
The vests, http://www.jaedon.co.nz/high-visibility/3497-hv-multi-pocket-vest are already in use by Red Cross and other agencies.

Vests will cost up to $85 each dependant on the customer’s requirements, with Dunedin proposing to purchase the following vests:

• Controller (White)
• Planning Manager (Pink)
• Intelligence Manager (Blue)
• Logistics Manager (Yellow)
• Public Information Manager (Purple)
• Operations Manager (Orange)
• Control Team advisor (Red)
• Welfare Manager (Teal)
• Safety Risk Management (Green)

If other authorities are interested in purchasing vests at this time, contact Emily at emay@jaedon.co.nz

The University of Canterbury’s new Graduate Certificate in Public Safety is taking enrolments for either the Emergency Management or Search & Rescue endorsement. This programme is online with an initial block course for New Zealand based students. Further information is available from www.publicsafety.ac.nz

A new endorsement in Humanitarian Aid is also being planned as part of the Graduate Certificate in Public Safety qualification, with PUBS310 International Humanitarian Aid course including a 7 day intensive residential block component being scheduled for Summer School (late 2015). Enrolments are open for PUBS310.

Students who have partially completed other relevant studies at other universities may be eligible to transfer some of their academic credit toward the Graduate Certificate.

For further information contact steve.glassey@canterbury.ac.nz

Issue 3 of the Journal of Search and Rescue (JSAR) is now available online at www.journalofsar.org and features:

Improving the performance of swift-water rescue quick release
harnesses.
L. Collins and C. Onions.

Evidentiary data collection from Global Positioning Systems: A
qualitative study from a Queensland Police Search
Coordinator’s perspective.
M. Jeffrey.

Emotional intelligence, coping style, and social support as
predictors of post-traumatic stress disorder.
J. Kelly, H. Scott, H. Bryan.

Letter: The use of twitter as an early warning system for
terrestrial search and rescue.
I. Greatbatch.

Book Review: A practitioner’s study: about rope rescue rigging
(Rhodes, 2014).
S. Glassey.
 

Emergency Management & Business Continuity Advisor

Everything we do, we do for Wellington! Wellington City Council has big ambitions for our city - and to support Wellington in achieving its potential, the city needs a Council which is well-run. The Risk Assurance team is at the forefront of providing advice and solutions which help ensure that. The Business Continuity team, which sits within Risk Assurance, also works with other agencies in the region to ensure that the Council is well prepared for business interruptions, and is able to play an effective role in regional emergency response.

You'll be responsible for assisting with enhancing the governance and management arrangements that enable effective emergency management response. You'll support the periodic review of Council's emergency management plans, policies and procedures, and work with key regional agencies to help ensure Wellington can recover from civil defence emergencies. You will also work within Council with business continuity plan owners to identify solutions and assess the potential impact of specific threat scenarios; and advise plan owners on contingency planning. You will have excellent analysis and reporting skills, with the ability to build strong relationships with diverse internal and external stakeholders.

Qualifications in a relevant discipline and/or demonstrated experience in emergency management or business continuity management is essential. You'll also need great problem solving skills, written and verbal communication skills, and the ability to coordinate lots of moving pieces!
Check out the job description and if you have further queries, contact Mark Constable, Emergency & Continuity Manager, on 04 803 8277 or email mark.constable@wcc.govt.nz

Sound like you? Apply online.

https://careers.wellington.govt.nz/jobdetails/ajid/IPff7/Emergency-Management-Business-Continuity-Advisor,2382.html

Applications close on Wednesday 26 November 2014.
 

Emergency Management Officer 0.5FTE

Waitaki District Council is looking to fill a position for an Emergency Management Officer, 0.5FTE located in Oamaru, reporting to the Manager, Emergency Management.  You will ideally have experience in Civil Defence or emergency management. 

While the role is diverse, and can change quickly dependent on events that arise, one key area of responsibility is providing training to schools, community groups and across our strong volunteer network.

The Waitaki area can be prone to hazard events, the most common being flooding, snow storms and fire. These events will require you to play a critical part in supporting the emergency operation within the Waitaki Emergency Operations Centre when it is activated.

For a copy of the position description please go to vacancies at www.waitaki.govt.nz

Applications close 5pm Tuesday 2 December 2014, and along with a signed Applicant Declaration Form (available on Council’s website), should be marked ‘Confidential’ and addressed to:  Emergency Management Officer Vacancy, Waitaki District Council, Private Bag 50058, OAMARU 9444 or emailed to vacancies@waitaki.govt.nz