Flooding provides dress rehearsal for new plan
From left, TDC’s Jim Frater, local controller Roger Broadhurst and Nelson Tasman emergency management officer Roger Ball at last Tuesday’s launch of the GB Community Response Plan.
Call it synchronicity, if you like, but the Golden Bay Community Response Plan was launched last Tuesday in the aftermath of the extreme weather of the preceding days. The plan lays out how this community will deal with civil defence emergencies.
A community reference group, representing a wide range of organisations, has been working on the plan for about six months and everyone concerned was pleased with the way the plan was able to be put into effect during Monday night's flooding.
"There are one or two minor things we need to look at but the plan worked well," said Golden Bay Civil Defence emergency controller Roger Broadhurst. Mr Broadhurst said that having access to the council's hydrologists during the previous evening's flooding had been invaluable. The launch of the plan was followed by a full debrief of the previous evening's activities.
The plan sets out the roles and responsibilities of the Golden Bay Community Response Co-ordinating Group, which includes the police, the volunteer fire brigade, TDC and the local controller. It also includes details about community resources, assembly areas, welfare centres and public information and reporting. Extensive appendices list the location and design of the Bay's bridges and the contact details of people responsible for key community resources like fuel supplies and generators.
Another appendix sets out the nature, capacity and number of car-parks at all the assembly areas and welfare centres that might be needed in the event of a major civil defence emergency.
Jim Frater, who led the Tasman District Council's input into the plan, explained that, while management of civil defence emergencies was the responsibility of local government, isolated rural communities needed to be able to rely on local resources in the event of an emergency.
The existence of the plan provides some reassurance to people in the community that systems are in place to respond to civil defence emergencies but Mr Broadhurst reminded individuals and families that they had to plan to be responsible for themselves for up to three days in the event of an emergency.
"This might be a good time for everyone to check on their emergency kit," he said.
Neil Wilson
