Welcome to the E-Bulletin for April

MCDEM News

The Future of Emergency Management: 'making it happen' - National Emergency Management Conference 2017

Make it happen: get to MCDEM Conference 2017

We're lining up another packed and ambitious programme of international and domestic speakers focusing on the tools, skills and advice professionals involved in emergency management, risk management, policy, research and practice need to navigate the future. The 2017 Ministerial, Directors and Long Service Awards will be presented as part of conference dinner.

Where: Intercontinental Hotel, Wellington

When: Conference 07-08 June. Conference Dinner 07 June. Workshops: 09 June

Registrations open:  From 14 April to 19 May via this link. Spaces are limited and last year filled up quickly, so don’t miss out!

Cost: $420 for Conference (including access to all workshops). There will be limited tickets (200 seats) for the Conference two course dinner at $80 per person. All prices include GST and are in New Zealand dollars.

More information about the 2017 Conference, including a list of speakers

Our new National Warning System platform is on the way!

What’s happening?

The Ministry of Civil Defence & Emergency Management (MCDEM) is moving to a new provider to send National Warning System messages.

The new National Warning System platform automates many of the current manual steps in the process of assessing hazard information and issuing a National Advisory or Warning message. The new platform will:

• issue the first National Warning or Advisory faster.
• allow MCDEM to publish messages to multiple channels simultaneously, including the civildefence.govt.nz website, NZCivilDefence Facebook page and @NZCivilDefence Twitter account.
• allow MCDEM to issue a request for broadcast under the  Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with media at the same time a National Warning message is issued, ensuring that essential safety messages get to the public faster.
• provide additional communication channels, such as automated voice alerts, to National Warning System message recipients (in addition to SMS & email).

When will the new National Warning System platform be used?

We will issue a test message to the National Warning System contact list prior to going live.

The new National Warning System platform is scheduled to go live in June, with this date delayed by a few weeks due to the recent emergencies. We will be providing formal notice to National Warning System recipients one month before the new platform goes live and additional supporting messages leading up to the go live date.

How do I get more information?

If you want to know more, please contact the Project Manager, Alexa Patterson – alexa.patterson@cass.govt.nz  

National Recovery Update

National Recovery Manager Dave Brash at Kaikōura harbour

Five months ago, the complex November 7.8M earthquake ruptured 21 fault lines, generating a tsunami and rocking the top of the South Island and bottom of the North Island. The National Recovery Office coordinates and supports central government agencies and local government recovery activities to support people, communities and business.

The national recovery work is mostly in the Kaikōura, Hurunui, Marlborough and Wellington districts. The team works with councils, central government, iwi, NGOs and businesses to support recovery activities on the ground. It focuses on people, land, economy, infrastructure, relationships and legislation.

Dave Brash, the National Recovery Manager, says while the recovery is generally progressing well, some communities are starting to feel the reality of the recovery hit home. Communities are concerned about being forgotten and want to know the support they need is there. “Some homes are unliveable and people are in temporary accommodation. Others have damage like broken chimneys and window frames or gaps in the floor. People, especially in rural areas, are under stresses from multiple sources besides the earthquake, for example, drought or debt. Again in rural areas, many farms and settlements are badly damaged and several hazards, such as dammed rivers and rock falls, pose risk to people and property. With winter looming, making sure people are in safe, warm accommodation is top of mind.”

The National Recovery Office is working hand in hand with councils and government agencies, such as Ministry of Primary Industries and Ministry of Business, Employment and Innovation, to support people, communities and businesses, through these issues.

Other challenges include restoring the State Highway 1 road and rail corridor after the massive slips, and the Kaikōura harbour after the seabed lifted more than 2m. There’s a useful update about transport recovery progress on the New Zealand Transport Agency website.

‘Three waters’ infrastructure was also affected – the fresh, waste and storm water infrastructure in the four districts suffered varying degrees of damage.

The national recovery team is also working closely with government and councils around the ongoing repairs and sometimes demolitions of the Wellington buildings that sustained damage after the earthquake.

If you’d like any more information or have any questions, please contact nationalrecovery@dpmc.govt.nz – we’d love to hear from you.

The National Recovery Office is supported by the Ministry of Civil Defence & Emergency Management. The National Recovery Manager has access to statutory powers if necessary. The national transition period has been extended to 7 June 2017.

ODESC focus on Wellington’s readiness for a large earthquake

The 14 November 2016 M7.8 Kaikoura earthquake and tsunami had wide ranging implications for affected areas including Kaikoura, Hurunui, Wellington and Marlborough. The earthquake and tsunami was a reminder for everyone from individuals to the highest levels of government that we live in a seismically active country.

In March MCDEM hosted an Officials Committee for Domestic and External Security Coordination (ODESC) Forum focused on ‘the 4 Rs of the Wellington Earthquake'. The main aim was to bring together government agencies preparing for a major earthquake in Wellington to continue discussions and progress.  The forum covered the science of the Kaikoura earthquake and aftershock sequence, the implications for Wellington’s buildings and an overview of the work going on to refresh the Wellington Earthquake Initial Response Plan (WENIRP).  88 leaders attended from 37 different organisations, including many with business continuity roles in their organisations.

Key feedback included:

• The information on the science and scenario was eye opening.
• All of Government Business Continuity is a clear priority. 
• Clear, timely and consistent public communications are critical to managing expectations.
• The social / human impact of an event is often underrepresented in discussions and planning.

The feedback will be particularly useful as MCDEM develops WENIRP 2.0 and the draft National Disaster Resilience Strategy. We’ll update you as these projects progress.

ODESC is a group of senior officials, which is chaired by the Chief Executive of the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet.ODESC is the strategic mechanism for coordinating an all-of-government response to events and is the system of domestic and external security coordination used by the government to manage all national crises.

Training and Resources

Stakeholder Stories

Resilience Fund - 2017/18 Project Profiles

The CDEM Resilience Fund enhances resilience to emergencies through the development of local and regional CDEM capability.  Below and in upcoming e-Bulletin editions we'll be profiling the successful applications for the 2017/18 round of funding.

Project & Applicant: Alpine Fault Project (AF8) (Second Year), Emergency Management Southland

Amount Awarded: $245,000

Description & Update:

The last of six Project AF8 South Island CDEM Group-based response planning workshops was held in Canterbury on 14 March, following successful workshops in Marlborough, Nelson Tasman, and West Coast. 

This workshop was the largest and most complex of the series, due to the nature and scale of the region, its exposure to Alpine Fault risk, the range of organisations involved, and the backdrop of recent emergencies locally.

Participants approached the workshop with a high degree of energy and enthusiasm, and were provided impact scenarios in break-out groups.  Each group identified higher-level consequences, issues, needs, resources, tasks, coordination and communication requirements, and cross boundary issues.

Key findings included:

• Need for cross-regional coordination, in the first few days of a response. 
• Planning to support residents with interrupted infrastructure and supply chains. 
• Reviewing response coordination capabilities and integrating communities into responses. 
• Ensuring effective coordinated impact assessments, data display and shared between all players.
• Gaining and maintaining in-depth appreciation of various roles, resources and capabilities of all organisations.

A national agencies workshop will be held in Wellington in late April, which will include direct and indirect impacts on the North Island as well as South Island scenarios used so far. 

Year 1 of the project will see the production of a report on the planning workshop findings, supplemented by assessment of gaps and opportunities identified from them and an analysis of existing response plans. The year 1 report will provide the framework for development of the South Island Alpine Fault Response (SAFER) Plan in year 2.

John Mitchell, Programme Manager, Project AF8

The Canterbury AF8 workshop on 14 March

Project & Applicant: Taranaki Vulnerability Study, Taranaki CDEM Group

Amount Awarded: $51, 570

Description:

The Taranaki region sits within a complex hazardscape under the shadow of Mount Taranaki volcano with communities built on fault lines and in hazard zones. They are also vulnerable to severe weather rolling off the Tasman Sea. Taranaki's reliance and critical dependence on lifeline utilities leaves it vulnerable should these be compromised in an event. Furthermore, the region’s economic prosperity relies on dairy farming and oil and gas activities, which are vulnerable to a number of hazards.

Included in its lifeline utilities are services such as transport (road, rail, sea and air), water supply, wastewater, drainage, energy generation, distribution telecommunications and broadcasting. These assets typically traverse large geographical areas and are vulnerable to natural hazards. It is now time to determine how Taranaki’s lifeline utilities may further contribute to the effectiveness of Taranaki CDEM’s Group Plan.

The project's objective is to assess the potential impacts of hazards on the region’s lifelines infrastructure and identify mitigation strategies to reduce that risk.

In June's e-Bulletin, we will take a look at the national Integrated Training Framework project and Waimakariri District Council's Guide to effective local Social Recovery.

Emergency Management Summer Institute marks its 10th Anniversary

GNS Science Earthquake Geologist Russ Van Dissen, on ‘classroom in the coach’ field trip

The Joint Centre for Disaster Research held its 2017 Emergency Management Summer Institute between 13 – 17 March.

The programme sessions were designed to help people gain a better understanding of how their organisations can prepare for, respond to, and recover from a disaster.

This year was the Summer Institute's 10 year anniversary and the programme had a record number of attendees, totaling 40, from a variety of organisations.

Included were 15 guests from the Charles Sturt University in Australia and three from Pacific Island Disaster Management Offices.

There were also attendees from the Ministry of Culture and Heritage, Earthquake Commission, Ministry of Health, and various emergency management offices.

The short course programme offered an introduction to selected topics relating to emergency management including:

• Emergency management planning
• Developing effective all-hazard warning systems
• The role of public education, community engagement and public participation in building resilient communities
• Welfare and community wellbeing.

There was also a field trip around the greater Wellington region, which was led by tour guides  David Johnston (JCDR Director), Greater Wellington Regional Council Group Controller Rian Van Schalkwyk, and GNS Science Earthquake Geologist Russ Van Dissen.

This gave the class the opportunity to visit tsunami hazard zones, explore the Wellington Fault, look at land-use planning for earthquakes, and examine community-based preparedness activities.

Emma Bartlett, Communications Coordinator, Massey University

Working Together in Hawke’s Bay  

Farmland in the Hastings District affected by the February 2017 fires. Photo by Peter Scott

When a State of Emergency was declared in the Hastings District in February as fires started burning out of control, it was a national effort that helped inform the public and bring them under control.

While Hastings District Council (HDC) was the lead agency, staff from councils throughout the region, as well as firefighters from around the country joined the fight.

From a Public Information Management (PIM) perspective, the staff worked seamlessly pumping out media releases, putting up social media posts and managing the huge media contingent.

Because the PIM team throughout the region keeps in regular contact and knows each other well, it was an easy phone call for HDC to make asking for assistance.

During the Hastings District fires staff from Hawke’s Bay Regional Council and Napier City Council assisted the Hastings District Council PIM team. Together they managed three Facebook pages and two websites, along with all the media inquiries.

One tool that proved extremely useful was the group gmail account. This allowed everyone to email out releases from a single email address. This meant when shifts changed the new PIM simply took over monitoring that one email address.

The incident highlighted the value of a group approach to Civil Defence in Hawke’s Bay and the importance of keeping the lines of communication flowing between all the teams during peacetime.

Helen Shea – Hawke’s Bay Regional Council Communications Specialist

Creature Comforts - wildlife escape the Northland floods

Noah’s Ark – mouse and friends escape Mangakahia Valley floodwaters west of Whangarei during the severe weather that hit Northland in the second week of March 2017. Picture and caption courtesy of Susan Botting and the Northland CDEM Group 

Collaborative projects underway in Manawatu-Whanganui

The Manawatu-Whanganui CDEM Group’s stall at Central Districts Field Days on 16-18 March at Manfield, Feilding

The Manawatu-Whanganui CDEM Group has been involved in a number of collaborative projects recently.

The Group’s PIMs had a regional catch up in February with a focus on getting new staff up to speed, reflecting on events in the past 12 months, and to discuss creating resources for when things heat up. Following this meeting the 16 attendees agreed to finalise a ‘Social Media in an Emergency Guidelines’ and ‘PIM Handbook’.

In early March a Group Welfare Plan was adopted which aims to provide guidance, strategic direction and clarity regarding the coordination and delivery of welfare services in the region. A number of welfare service agencies contributed to the plan through workshops and feedback.

The Welfare Team also took part in Exercise Rauora II, led by NZ Police and directed by the New Zealand Search and Rescue (NZSAR) Council in early March. The aim of the exercise was to test arrangements for responding to mass rescue incidents such as a stranded cruiser-liner off the Horowhenua coast.

Manawatu-Whanganui CDEM Welfare were involved with entering registrations in EMIS to give Police the opportunity to test the inquiry and matching function. There were 100 registrations entered in under an hour and the Welfare team rang the Police to inject the inquiries. Overall the welfare response worked well and some areas were noted for future improvement.

Finally, at the recent Central Districts Field Days in Feilding the Manawatu-Whanganui CDEM Group took the opportunity of promoting community resilience via a collaborative approach with partner agencies including NZ Fire Service, Rural Fire Authority, St John and Neighbourhood Support.

The Group used the opportunity to engage with the general public regarding general emergency management issues and to promote preparedness messages. The site was staffed by both permanent and volunteer personnel over three days and proved to be of great interest to all.

Cara Hesselin, Communications Advisor, Manawatu-Whanganui CDEM

Great success for Auckland’s new Leadership and Controller course

March saw Auckland CDEM kick off the Joint Auckland Council and University of Auckland (UoA) Controller and Leadership Programme 2017.  The programme will run from March to October and covers a range of topics relevant to the Controller role.  Something rather unique with this offering is that Auckland CDEM has underwritten the cost of the programme and any associated resources so that participants can effectively attend at zero cost.  In addition, the programme includes specific activities and knowledge sharing opportunities designed for metro cities.

The programme is fully assessed by the UoA and will be aligned to the competencies defined in the MCDEM Competency Framework Role Map.

Auckland CDEM are excited about this programme as it is the culmination of a great deal of effort between council and UoA and actively aims to lift emergency management competency standards both in Australasia.  There are seven workshops in the programme.

Leadership was the focus of the first two-day workshop and the content covered a wide range of topics.  The facilitators, internationally experienced experts, were informative and practiced.  Engagement was high, everyone contributed well and actively immersed themselves in the topics covered which was great to see.

We are very much looking forward to the next workshop in April and continuing the learning journey.  Due to a high level of interest, we have been required to create a ‘waitlist’ for the next programme.

Adam Maggs, Head of Competency and Public Readiness, Auckland CDEM

Auckland CDEM ‘March Madness’

Tzu Chi Foundation donates to flood affected persons, 18 March 2017

From 7-12 March, Auckland CDEM successfully responded to three separate rainfall events resulting in severe localised flooding, landslips and evacuation needs in West and South Auckland.

Initial rainfall saw Auckland CDEM organise the evacuation of 443 school children and staff from three camps in the Hunua Ranges. In subsequent days the event escalated quickly as rain continued to fall on highly saturated ground, causing rapid surface runoff, affecting the living areas of 47 properties.

Auckland CDEM coordinated emergency services, Auckland Council teams (Public Information Management, building control and Healthy Waters), lifeline utilities and welfare agencies, who worked tirelessly together to support affected communities. Invaluable support also came from the Salvation Army, Red Cross and Auckland Council resource recovery centres, which replaced damaged household goods and arranged for the removal of damaged goods, free of charge.

Situational awareness was an issue that has led to a project being undertaken by Auckland CDEM to identify process improvements in the quality of situation awareness during an emergency.

Welfare support has been ongoing due to habitable floor flooding. Severe flooding at a Kelston property affected some of Auckland’s most vulnerable citizens. In coordination with Panuku Development Auckland, Auckland CDEM arranged for nine displaced Kelston households, involving 26 people (including four children), to be housed in Mt Eden after their homes were yellow-stickered.

Auckland CDEM facilitated a generous offer of assistance by The Taiwan Buddhist Compassion Relief Tzu Chi Foundation (pictured above) to the nine displaced households after visiting the flood site and witnessing the damage. A financial gift of $1,000 and food parcels were provided to each family. This was met with great appreciation by residents, many of whom lost their personal belongings and cars. Rohan Jaduram of the Resilience team at Auckland CDEM described it as “an incredibly moving and beautiful exchange”. This follows the Tzu Chi Foundation, facilitated byAuckland CDEM, providing $125,000 via cash cards to affected Kaikoura and Hurunui families late last year, following the Kaikoura earthquakes.

During the recovery phase, local community-led exchange initiatives have blossomed. Whau and Franklin Local Boards have been hands on facilitating positive conversations between community organisations to help those affected get back on their feet. AucklandCDEM is championing this community driven approach and many learnings will be applied to future events.

Stephanie Wilson, Emergency Management Graduate, Auckland CDEM 

Got a Story?

e-Bulletin is put together using stories, resources and information that readers submit. Up until recently,  we've asked everyone who's subscribed if they have anything to contribute to each issue.

From now on, we'll only be regularly contacting people listed as Contributors. Everyone else will have the chance to send in their stories by clicking the 'Send us your story'  link at the bottom of each issue. So if you've got a one-off story you'll still be able to send it to us. 

Those who want to be added to the 'Contributors list', click the button below to email us.