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Civil Defence
and Emergency Management Group Committee
06 March 2014
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Civil Defence and Emergency Mangement Group Work
Programme
File No.:
CP2014/02908
Purpose
To present the
Civil Defence and Emergency Management Group Committee work programme.
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Recommendation/s
That the Civil Defence and Emergency Management Group Committee:
a) receive the
Civil Defence and Emergency Management Group Committee work programme report.
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Discussion
1. Hazards Advice: For
Tsunami, Flooding, Storm Surge, Volcano, Earthquake, Wildfire – Analyse
conditions, understand impact, plot inundation/impact areas, inform NRPs, and
develop warning systems
Council has received a report detailing Auckland’s earthquake
risk. The report describes the expected effect of three credible
earthquake scenarios and details the expected casualties and losses across
different return periods. The study concludes that Auckland has a low
risk of seismic activity when compared to the rest of New Zealand. In addition,
when compared with the proportion of people, infrastructure and buildings
potentially exposed, the modelled losses and casualties are small.
Council received the results of the regional storm surge and coastal
inundation project from the National Institute of Weather and Atmospheric
Research (NIWA) in September. Inundation mapping has been included in
Council’s Draft Unitary Plan to restrict activities in locations which are
subject to a 100 year event occurring in 100 years; time. In locations of
existing development (brownfield areas), a regional level policy promotes floor
level restrictions on proposed residential developments that occur in the 100
year event plus one metre of sea level rise inundation area. In
greenfield locations, a regional level policy promotes avoidance of all
development activities in the 100 year event plus two metres of sea level rise
inundation area. This study is the largest site specific storm surge
inundation study to ever be completed in New Zealand. In addition, the
integration of regional level policies, using maps, into Council’s Unitary Plan
is the most significant example of proactive risk reduction for coastal
inundation in the country to date.
In early February 2014, the Auckland King
Tides Initiative was launched. King Tides Auckland is an exciting
community initiative that encourages people from around the Auckland Region to
visit and photograph the highest tides that naturally occur along the coast
line each year. The website uses social media tools (facebook, twitter and
instagram) to encourage the public to upload images of the coast during king
tide events. These photographs are used as a living record to capture what our
coast may look like in the future as global sea levels continue to rise.
The initiative launch was extremely successful with significant media interest.
In September 2013, the Ministry of Civil
Defence and Emergency Management released a report detailing New Zealand’s
national tsunami risk. The report identifies that Auckland’s risk from
tsunami is greater than previously understood. As a result, Council
commissioned GNS Science to map the extent of expected inundation for a maximum
credible event to inform evacuation planning. Evacuation map
development is complete and will be presented to communities through the
Community Response Plan programme to complement the identification of
evacuation routes, signage, and public alerting initiatives.
Concurrently, an assessment of welfare facility adequacy and population
analyses will be undertaken to better understand each communities risk
profile. The results of the national review have also been presented to
the Auckland Engineering Lifelines and Coordinating Executive Groups.
The Determining Volcanic Risk in Auckland (DeVoRA) research programme
continues to produce insights into the nature, hazards and social implications
of an eruption in the Auckland Volcanic Field (AVF). New research has
identified that Rangitoto volcano has erupted multiple times; 1,500, 600 and
550 years ago. This is unique as all other 55 volcanoes in the field have
only erupted once. Scientists have recently drilled a 150m bore into the
volcano to help clarify how many times it has erupted and how it has
formed. It is anticipated that a seismograph, which can measure
earthquakes, will be installed in this borehole to increase our capacity to
identify renewed volcanic activity.
Work on Council’s Natural Hazards Risk Management Action Plan
(NHRMAP), which is a key Auckland Plan initiative, is progressing well.
Draft reporting on the current state of Council’s natural hazard information,
in the form of reports, GIS data, photographs, media etc. is complete and under
review. This reporting will be used to guide future initiatives and
policy on how the whole of Council’s manages natural hazard information and
risk.
2. Scientific Advisory
Groups: To manage the formation and reconsolidation of Scientific Advisory
Groups for the provision of specialist advice to inform all CDEM activities
Further meetings have been held with GNS Science regarding the
future composition and terms of reference for the Auckland Volcanic Scientific
Advisory Group (AVSAG). It is recognised that the integration the
Determining Volcanic Risk in Auckland (DeVoRA) research programme into CDEM planning
documents is crucial and AVSAG may be an appropriate platform to facilitate
this process. Discussions on national and regional Scientific Advisory
Groups compositions are ongoing with MCDEM.
Considerable work on solidifying relationships with scientific,
central government and partner stakeholder agencies has been undertaken in
recent years. These relationships are fundamental to effectively
and efficiently respond to emergencies in Auckland and to provide assistance to
other CDEM Groups within New Zealand when required. The establishment of
key intelligence flows and 24/7 contact availability with these agencies has
been a key focus.
3. Understanding and
reporting on “Situational Awareness”: Review “Best Practice”, develop processes
for gathering “Situational Information” during a Crisis or Emergency, and
develop methods of reporting information to “Key Stakeholders”
Council continues to work with key stakeholders to ensure that
suitable intelligence transfer arrangements are in place to the Auckland
Emergency Co-ordination Centre (ECC).
Further ECC enhancements have improved situational awareness
capability. The California Integrated Seismic Network (CISN) software
programme provides a direct connection from the United States Geological Society
(USGS) earthquake monitoring programme. This tool provides instant
notification of large earthquakes occurring worldwide which may have the
potential to generate tsunami. In addition, should a very large
earthquake occur close to or in New Zealand this system will provide data, such
as location and magnitude, which the GNS Science GeoNet may not be able to
resolve.
Council has completed its trial using the Signal Social Media
Monitoring tool. The tool was used for a number of minor incidents across
the region in the last 6 months which has enhanced CDEM’s monitoring capability
of social media sites substantially.
Council continues to work with MetService and NIWA on new products
to enhance our ability to respond to weather events. The rainfall gauge
corrected radar product developed in 2012 with MetService has been used the
identification of rainfall location and intensities from thunderstorms.
In coming weeks, MetService are installing an additional rainfall radar site in
Northland. This site will greatly enhance Auckland’s visibility of storms
approaching the region from the north.
An internal alerting system has been developed using Council’s
rainfall and stream flow monitoring data. This system alerts the ECC Duty
Officer and CDEM staff when streams and rainfall exceed specified criteria
identifying where and when disruption from heavy rainfall may occur.
Council has been working closely with GNS Science and NIWA to
develop the RiskScape tool for Auckland. The tool can be used for casualty
and loss assessments prior, during and following emergencies. Nearly all of the
560,000 buildings in Auckland have been integrated into the tool which can
currently assess the impacts from earthquakes, tsunami, flooding and wind
events. Volcanic events are being added to the tool this year through the
DeVoRA programme. Auckland Council Stormwater are reviewing whether the
tool is suitable to inform the Regional Flood Damage Assessment project which
informs long term asset and financial planning.
4. Evacuation
Planning: Review best practice, develop mass evacuation plans for
Auckland (including managing transport corridors)
A draft version of the Auckland Evacuation
Plan has been provided to members of the Auckland Evacuation Planning Group for
comment. In early 2014, Auckland Council’s Communications and Public
Affairs department will complete a detailed design of the plan to align with
other key documents. The plan will be presented to the Auckland Civil
Defence and Emergency Management (CDEM) Group (including the AWCG, Police,
Fire, DHBs .etc.) later in the year for approval.
Transport and traffic management are a key element in
successful operational evacuation planning and implementation. The
transport sector is deemed a ‘lifeline utility’ under the CDEM Act 2002.
The Auckland Transport Response Group (ATRG), a sub-group of the AELG Transport
Sector Group, has operational roles in response and recovery. The ATRG
protocols operate as a supporting procedure for the Auckland CDEM – Lifeline Utility
Response and Recovery Protocols.
Membership on the ATRG
includes:
· Joint Transport Operations Centre
· Auckland Transport – Public
Transport
· Auckland Airport
· Ports of Auckland
· KiwiRail
· NZ Police
· Air New Zealand
· Auckland CDEM
A concept has
been proposed to include the NZ Police, NZ Defence Force and a Security Group
in addition to the ATRG to formulate an Evacuation Planning Group for
operational planning and implementation of a Physical Evacuation Plan.
The Auckland Evacuation Plan is intended to serve as a resource for
the development of Operational Evacuation Plans and area specific Emergency
Response Plans for metropolitan areas, for example the Central Business
District (CBD). The Auckland CBD Emergency Response Plan was approved by
the Emergency Management committee on Wednesday 12 February.
In addition, the
CDEM department will begin work with subject-matter experts and the community
as part of the Community Response Plan process to identify evacuation routes
and signage, community identified evacuation centres and a public education
programme to support this work.
Welfare and Recovery
5. Welfare centre /
Marae partnership project
The initial draft
agreement document between CDEM and marae is currently being reviewed by four
Marae: Manurewa, Awataha (Northcote), Ngati Whatua (Orakei) and Ruapotaka (Glen
Innes). This project is being undertaken in a partnership approach between CDEM
and Community Development, Arts & Culture, with continual referral to Te
Puni Kokiri and Te Waka Angamua. Follow up meetings are scheduled to
begin in late February, early March 2014.
6. Auckland Welfare
Coordination Group (AWCG)
The AWCG met on 13 November 2013.
Sarah Stuart-Black, Manager Analysis & Planning, Ministry of Civil Defence
& Emergency Management (MCDEM) presented on the draft proposal for the
welfare section of the National Plan review; implementation impacts and
timeline for central government sign off. Comprehensive feedback on the
draft proposal was submitted by the Department to MCDEM. This review has
provided significant opportunities to streamline our response and recovery
capabilities within the AWCG.
We have provided an induction session with
the Salvation Army’s new AWCG representative, Captain Ralph Hargest, Divisional
Secretary for Emergency Services, Auckland Northland Region.
An enhanced CDEM foundation training module
will be offered to all AWCG members and their “welfare” teams on a regular
basis from April 2014.
7. Build welfare
response capability and capacity
Audits, formal
designations through Memoranda of Understanding and letters of agreement
continue to be implemented on an ongoing basis with stakeholders, supporters
and facilities that could be used to support the welfare and recovery effort in
an event.
Through the
Community Response Planning project the communities with active Community
Response Plans (approx. 37% of Auckland to date) have identified and created
local access arrangements for over 200 ‘Community Identified Evacuation
Centres’ (consisting of village, community and church halls, schools etc.).
This number will grow as the project will eventually cover all of Auckland.
These are intended to be the first port of call for displaced people whilst the
official response is being initiated.
The Auckland CDEM
department has 141 pre-identified Welfare Centres (to be called Civil Defence
Centres in the future) that can be used for the official welfare response where
members of the Auckland Welfare Coordination Group provide appropriate support.
Many of these are legacy Welfare centres inherited from the previous councils.
Now the CRP project is well underway, a review of Welfare Centres is underway
and facility overlaps will reduce the number of designated Welfare sites to a
more manageable level.
The Barrier Free
Trust accessibility adviser has provided guidance on disability access for
welfare facilities. Members of the disability community will be
supporting our training and activation of welfare volunteers.
We have increased
numbers of welfare trained and competent volunteers and exercised key
supervisor staff in 24/7 welfare centre exercise during “Exercise Hunua Falls”;
a joint residential NZ Red Cross and Auckland Civil Defence & Emergency
Management exercise in August 2013.
The Group Welfare
Manager attended National Welfare Coordination Group meetings throughout the
year with particular emphasis on providing feedback to MCDEM and seeking
clarification around the proposed national welfare framework and draft welfare
section of the National Plan.
Members of the
Health Emergency Management Group undertook Exercise Big Smoke in November
2013, which looked at the effect of volcanic ash fall on Auckland. A number of
Auckland CDEM staff presented and attended this event.
The team developed
draft processes for companion animal management in collaboration with the SPCA
and Auckland Council Animal Control. The Disability Assist Dogs Tag
initiative was launched on 3 December 2013. This was implemented to
ensure certified disability assist dogs can be easily identified and remain
with their owners, or if separated, quickly reunited. Auckland Council
Animal Control staff have been briefed on the administrative requirements of
implementation.
In order to
ensure compliance with best practice guidelines for operation of welfare
facilities, a draft guideline (based on Sphere Guidelines for Humanitarian Aid http://www.sphereproject.org/
) has been developed in conjunction with Ministry of Civil Defence &
Emergency Management and Auckland Council strategic partners (Auckland Welfare
Coordination Group, Animal Control, Environmental Health Services), Salvation
Army, NZ Red Cross, and Regional Public Health. This guideline is a
practical tool for use particularly where large numbers of evacuees
present. It includes tools to understand all likely requirements such as
food, accommodation, health and safety issues, support for companion animals
etc. A draft will be circulated for comment in the next few weeks with a
view to publication by May 2014.
The installation
of six generator plugs in “priority” designated welfare facilities is now
complete. One remains outstanding due to parts availability and will be
installed by the end of February 2014. Ensuring welfare facility
capability is integral to the welfare response. Installing generator
plugs at our key welfare facility sites has mitigated the risk of being unable
to activate those sites where power supply has been disrupted or likely to be.
8. Build Recovery
capability and capacity
The first draft of the reviewed recovery plan
“”Recovery Framework” will be circulated in March for feedback from key
stakeholders. The Recovery Framework will be supported by a Recovery
handbook which explains the operational elements of the Framework, together
with Standard Operating Procedures.
The Economic, Built, and Social Recovery
taskgroups have established Chairs and both the Economic and Built taskgroups
continue to meet on a regular basis. The Built taskgroup considered their
draft Terms of Reference in December 2013 and these are now being
finalised. In the event of a disaster, these task groups are to provide
formal advice to Auckland Council and the Recovery Manager, or in the case of a
very large event act as ‘plug in points’ for additional support from Central
Government appointed resources.
9. The CDEM Group
Welfare Forum
This national level forum is being hosted by Auckland
Council CDEM on 19/20 March 2014. The focus of this forum is on discussions
that assist in forging common understandings of good practice in CDEM welfare
and to think about the future state of emergency welfare services. The
programme is built around six main sessions running as breakout discussion
groups. These are:
· Roles and responsibilities of Group
Welfare Managers
· Standardising terms of reference for
welfare coordination groups
· Welfare plans
· Welfare sub-functions - as in
the draft revised National CDEM Plan, Sect 12
· Welfare in response
· Capability development requirements
of welfare managers
Business Continuity Planning
10. Reduce the effects
of disruptive events to Council operations through disciplined crisis and
business continuity management.
Auckland Council departmental business continuity plans
are being updated in a more streamlined format to reflect organisational
changes and critical services provided to our internal and external
customers. There are currently 41 BCPs across the AC Group providing
strong contingency planning and business continuity capability for our
stakeholders.
11. Manage the Crisis
Management and Business Continuity Processes by having an up to date policy
The Auckland
Council Business Continuity Policy has been developed for review by the
executive leadership on an annual basis.
12. Manage the Crisis
Management and Business Continuity Processes by support for departments with
training and exercise
Support is given to all departments within the Auckland
Council Group (including CCOs) providing business continuity management
leadership, training and support. Emphasis is being given to teams
affected with 135 Albert St coming on stream and the effects this will have on
office space redundancy levels being reduced in Auckland’s CBD.
A presentation was given recently to the Auckland CBD
Emergency Management Committee on ‘Resilient Business’ in support of Auckland
Council driving business continuity awareness with key stakeholders, including
emergency services, military and tertiary educational providers.
The CDEM team prepares and conducts an annual business
continuity exercise to test the preparedness and efficacy of departmental
business continuity plans. The exercises involve a number of departments with
the scenario planned in advance for June/July. The exercise this year will be
influenced by the major move into 135 Albert St., the lack of Council office
space in the CBD and the increased ability of staff to work remotely.
Emergency
Coordination Centre
13. Apply Learning From
Emergencies and Exercises: Review, Analyse and Apply Learning From Incident
De-briefs and Exercise
The Department has continued to run monthly training
sessions in the ECC incorporating the EMIS information management tool and the
new cloud based computer solutions. On the 1st October a regional training
session was held on the new Welfare component of EMIS, and on the 24th October
we took advantage of the newly appointed North Island Trainer for EMIS who has
committed to attend each of our monthly trainings. She is also preparing online
training material for our volunteers and stakeholders.
As indicated, EMIS and the training for EMIS is undergoing
considerable development. We have committed to support the user group and
provide operational end user feedback to improve functionality. In the
meantime, until EMIS is fully functional, we are committed to upgrade our
existing WebEOC.
On 28 November we held a departmental Desktop exercise to
review key processes when faced with a short notice (less than three hours to
impact) Tsunami event. Specific areas tested were, estimation of
populations affected and delivering an evacuation area to police, opening of
welfare centres and provision of generators for these sites and the
Harbourmasters direction and management of shipping. The initial hot debrief
raised some constructive ideas that are being actioned such as the development
of a process diagram to guide the team’s actions and decision making and also
more ‘walk through, talk through’ exercises to further build confidence and
capability.
Auckland CDEM department continues to work with the
Ministry of Civil Defence & Emergency Management (MCDEM) to implement the
National Exercise Programme. To complement the National Exercise Programme,
Auckland has developed a regional exercise programme to align with the Auckland
Civil Defence and Emergency Management (CDEM) Capability Development strategy.
The next Auckland CDEM Group exercise (Tier 2) will be conducted in September
2014 based on a large urban fire.
Staff within the CDEM department conducted two exercises
at the end of 2013:
· Departmental regional –source tsunami exercise on 28
November 2013. Specific areas tested were estimation of populations affected,
identification of the evacuation zone, identifying suitable Welfare Facilities
and activation and the Harbourmasters direction and management of ship
anchorage and ship movement. A ‘hot’ debrief was conducted with the department
Leadership team on 23 January to identify areas for improvement.
· Auckland Council Emergency Support (ACES) operational
cover for the council close-down period.
The CDEM department continues to run monthly exercises,
walk though – talk through training sessions in the Emergency Coordination
Centre (ECC) incorporating the Emergency Management Information System (EMIS)
and other systems.
14. Public Education:
Strengthen Public Education Programme
Public education is ongoing and the department has
supported a number of initiatives and events – ranging from minor (schools) to
major (Farmer’s Santa Parade). Of note, the group is trialling some
alternative messaging. Instead of ‘berating’ the public to ‘get ready’,
we positively encourage and demonstrate that many households have many of the
items required and are 60-70% ready but don’t realise it. This positive
messaging has been well received and is planned to be incorporated into new
public education documents later in the year.
A recently released Statistics New Zealand survey (2012)
results show Auckland is the least prepared in the event of an emergency with
the Ministry of Civil Defence & Emergency Management (MCDEM) annual Colmar
Brunton survey (carried out since 2006) showing the same pattern. The Auckland
CDEM Group will continue to monitoring and evaluate Aucklanders preparedness
using tools such as the People’s Panel.
The graph below shows the percentage of
households with emergency water and food for three days, and an emergency
plan from the Statistics New Zealand survey.
Note:
Data has been suppressed due to relative sampling error exceeding 30 percent or
for confidentiality reasons. See details in Table 1 below.
15. Respond and Recover
From Crisis and Emergencies and Support CDEM NZ Sector as Required
The ECC has been
activated a number of times for primarily storm events in 2013, with events
running smoothly with only small disruption to some communities which were
quickly resolved. ECC training continues with a focus on cross portfolio
skills and communication so that staff will be able to fill a number of
different roles in the ECC should the situation dictate.
Auckland CDEM now
has a representative on the National EMIS Governance Group, the EMIS Technical
Advisory Group and the EMIS User’s Forum and there is some good momentum in
providing a workable tool for use in any event.
16. Fire Response Teams
support Victorian Fires
The Auckland Rural fire District has
supported the request from the State of Victoria for fire managers to assist
with the control of the wildfires in the state.
To date ten firefighters from
Auckland have deployed and still have another team of five available to
deploy. This is an excellent way of maintaining the higher level currency, and
as such we will always support development and deployment opportunities such as
this.
The joint initiative between the Auckland Rural Fire
District and the NZFS continues and the due diligence has been completed on the
transfer of the Waitakere, Matakana and the Muriwai Volunteer Rural Fire Forces
by way of a Section 38 Agreement to the NZFS. This is a win-win for all
parties, the NZFS have a resource that meets their need for structure
protection, the Auckland Rural Fire District maintains the resource for
vegetation fires and the members of the new entity have legislative mandate and
protection to undertake the respective taskings.
The National Commander of the New Zealand Fire Service is
very supportive of this partnership model. It is intended to have Waitakere,
Muriwai and Matakana transferring over the next two months, property transfer
has been the delay to date.
17. Harbourmaster
The Harbourmaster reports no significant marine oil
spills, however there was one minor diesel spill at St Marys Bay refuelling
facility responded to, the spiller is known and has been invoiced to recover
response costs. Other initiatives/actions include:
· New Maritime Pollution Response Coordinator
has settled into position. Iwi liaison in regard to how marine oil spills
are responded to has commenced.
· Oil spill response equipment trailer has
been purchased for Great Barrier Island.
· On-going dialogue with Maritime New Zealand
in regards to the review of the National Marine Oil Spill Response Strategy.
· New bunker barge is being commissioned by
Stolthaven, Harbourmasters Office is working closely with all parties involved
to develop safe operating plans for this venture.
18. Police
There are a few
major operations that are in the planning stages for 2014. A Royal Tour is
likely; Small Island Developing States (SIDS14) a United Nations Conference
although being held in Samoa will attract a number of VIP visits in Auckland
while VIPs are transiting through New Zealand to the conference; and the G20
although being held in Brisbane there are likely to be protests here in
Auckland.
Late last year
Counties Manukau Police recently run a full deployment exercise, Ex Bluesky at
the Auckland International Airport which was centred on an aircraft crash of
the end of the runway in the tide. The exercise involved the Auckland Airport
Company, Fire Service, St John and a number of other agencies and saw the deployment
of the hovercraft and other marine resources. It was a successful exercise with
a few minor issues that need modifying, but more importantly no critical issues
to any procedures in the response were highlighted.
19. Enlarged ECCs:
Review Best Practice, Investigate available facilities, develop processes to
set up enlarged ECCs for CDEM and Council Governance for when Civic Complex is
unavailable
Work is ongoing
exploring technical solutions to providing a flexible, mobile ECC which can be
deployed in any location. An audit of our existing facilities has been carried
out with a view to replacing Pitt St as an alternative ECC and also having the
capability to expand further. Manukau remains the favoured location due to the
council chamber facilities available there.
The old desktop
computers at Pitt St are being replaced with new laptops as part of the roll
out programme which will allow them to be used in any future alternate ECC
project.
20. Auckland Engineering
Lifelines Group.
Current lifelines
projects underway include:
· The Auckland Engineering Lifelines Project (AELP)
report, which assesses the vulnerability of Auckland’s critical infrastructure
to earthquake, volcano, tsunami and cyclone hazards. The project was first
completed in 1995-1990 and 'AELP-2' aims to update this project with the latest
critical infrastructure and hazard information. Most hazard assessments are
complete and the project be finalised by end February 2014.
· Resilience Benchmarking: This project aims to
benchmark Auckland's lifeline utilities resilience using the MCDEM Capability
Assessment Tool. AELG is working alongside MCDEM to review and update the
lifelines worksheet prior to undertaking assessments of utilities and
benchmarking performance to identify improvements by organisation and by sectors.
· The Infrastructure Hotspots project was originally
undertaken in 2007, to identify areas in Auckland where critical infrastructure
converges creating areas of high risk. The project is being updated to:
o Incorporate updated natural hazard and critical lifeline
utility information – some significant changes have occurred in both areas -
and re-evaluate ranking of location accordingly.
o Improve the understanding of the impact of
catastrophic failure at hotspots/pinchpoints locations.
o Understand the level of risk associated with hazards
(incorporating probability of failure to provide an overall risk ranking).
o Understand how the impact of failure will evolve –
i.e. timeframe to level of service failure. For example, loss of a trunk
watermain does not always cause immediate loss to the whole area because of
local storage.
o Include consideration of the risk associated with
dependence on other structures (e.g. trunk mains on weak bridges).
o Facilitate an improved, coordinated response by
emergency management agencies.
o Improve the uptake of the project work, by lifeline
utilities and the Auckland Council Infrastructure Planning team.
Zones
21. Community Response
Planning
Community Response Plans (CRPs): (CRPs strengthen
community resilience through a community based (and owned) planning process to
create community resilience at a local level. Staff have been working with
community groups since early 2011 to develop local capacity to respond to, and
recover from, events that may cause significant disruption to local
communities.
The project initially identified 102 community plan areas
across the region that would cover the entire population of the region.
Over time this has been reviewed by combining areas of common hazard and/or
community interest and ownership and has been rationalised to approximately 80
CRPs that will cover all of Auckland. The CRPs are community owned and
activated and CDEM has developed a Standard Operating Procedure to communicate
with Emergency Response Groups (ERGs) during emergencies. ERGs then
communicate with their Neighbourhood contacts.
To the end of
January over one third of Auckland’s community is now covered by 47 CRPs
with more in progress. The intention is to strengthen and deepen this
engagement through both formal contacts with CDEM portfolio holders in the
Local Boards and through working with Community Development Arts and Culture
and accessing other existing recognised groups.
22. Targeted public
education
Four public
presentations made plus department staff and community volunteers attending 4
Open Days/Expos, including two significant events; the CBD Santa Parade and
MOTAT Fire and Rescue Open Day.
Specific Public
Education delivered through the Zones is targeted at communities that already
have a plan or we are contemplating commencing a plan. 59 targeted
presentations have been made to date to an audience of 5916 people supporting
communities to build resilience through community response planning.
23. Stakeholder
Engagement
All Key Stakeholder Forum/relationships met: Emergency
Services Coordination Committee (ESCC - 3 for the quarter), Emergency
Management Committee (EMC - 6 for the quarter) including establishment of new
EMC for Central Zone which now brings alignment across the region, Hazardous Substances
Coordinating Committee (1 for quarter), Wiri Oil Services (WOSL).
Logistics
24. Volunteers:
Ministry of Education recently lead a review of the Vote
Tertiary Education funding arrangements for emergency management volunteer
training. The successful outcome of the review is that Cabinet has agreed
to establish a ring-fenced pool to be shared between CDEM and fire-fighting
volunteer training. Further detail will be coming out of Ministry of
Education in the first half of this year.
Increased volunteer assistance at public education events,
including Motat Fire and Rescue day Emergency Services Staying Alive, Chinese
New Year and Rodney Local Board Expo.
Currently the Auckland CDEM department has a significant
number of trained volunteers including:
· 400 Auckland Council Emergency Support staff (ACES).
These are Auckland Council staff with suitable transferable skills who are
trained to support CDEM to operate on a 24/7 basis, in either the Emergency
Coordination Centre and/or Civil Defence Centres. ACES are also given the
option to attend events with our Public Education team as Get Ready Get Thru
Champions.
· 300 Community Volunteers (CVs). These are members of
the community who volunteer their time to train in two areas: Public Education
and Welfare Support. These volunteers are trained to assist in various roles in
Auckland Council run Civil Defence Centres across the region. In addition to
role specific welfare support training, CVs attend events with our public
education team as Get Ready Get Thru Champions.
· 30 volunteers across two Auckland Local Emergency
Response Teams (ALERTS). These teams provide CDEM with a fast response
capability. All team members have a minimum qualification of Orange Card
Responder, which is a national standard certification. There are also
specialists within the teams including communications, storm and rope response
and rural fire support.
· Rural Fire has 265 trained volunteer fire fighters
across 16 rural fire stations. All rural fire stations conduct weekly training
sessions and crews attend specialist training courses when required. As well as
ensuring that their neighbourhoods have the best fire protection possible,
Rural Fire volunteers partake in fundraising and community awareness
programmes.
· 15 Harbour Master Patrol Boat Crew volunteers assist
on one weekend day per 4-6 week roster cycle all year. These volunteers all
have boat experience and day skipper qualifications.
It should be
noted that the numbers of Community Volunteer and ACES held is being reviewed
and is likely to reduce based on commitment and availability issues.
In addition to
these volunteers, through the Community Response Plan project there are
currently over 450 community responders identified. This is likely to grow to
over 1,000 as the project continues. Under MCDEM guidelines these people are
not categorised as volunteers, they are members of community owned ‘Community
Response Groups’ formally recognised (but not owned) by the CDEM team and they
play an important part in their local communities to build resilience. In an
emergency, members of these groups provide accurate information about their
community to the Emergency Coordination Centre and may run pre-designated
Community Evacuation Centres in the initial stages of a community response.
25. Key Emergency
Suppliers:
Supplier database
has doubled, now working on capacity requirements for each type of event.
26. Public Alerting:
Tsunado, an
electronic household alarm and warning messenger for use in emergencies, is
about to do final pilot before launching into the market place. MCDEM have
recommended that CDEM Groups consider the product for their warning system tool
boxes.
The national roll
out of the CloudM alerting platform and iPhone App is still at the development
stage.
The national Cell
Broadcasting alerting system is continued to be investigated in conjunction
with the ministry of CDEM, although any capability is likely to a few years
away.
Ministry of Civil
Defence and Emergency Management have released a draft Standard for the use of
sirens in Tsunami warnings. It states that fixed coastal sirens solely for
tsunami warning is not advised.
Auckland Council
has investigated the use of mobile helicopter mounted sirens/loudspeakers. In
partnership with the Auckland Rescue Helicopter Trust and their engineers,
research is complete on the use on mobile public address and siren systems
which can be fitted to their helicopters. The purchase of the units is in
final stages of sign off with procurement and CDEM. On delivery to the engineers
they will be certified, fitted and tested, which will give us greater coverage
of the Auckland Coastal region.
Emergency
Management Associates (NZ) Ltd, the operators of the Readynet service, notified
of cessation of its operations as of 30 November 2013. Alternatives for this
service are being used while a more permanent solution is being developed.
Attachments
There are no
attachments for this report.
Signatories
|
Author
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Jeremy Holman – Manager Readiness & Resilience
|
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Authoriser
|
Clive Manley - Manager Civil Defence and Emergency
Management
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