Keeping a finger on the pulse

Ruapehu had a bit of a hiccup in September last year and since that time things haven't really returned to normal background levels. In fact some of the volcanic indicators that our volcano experts keep an eye on have remained elevated or even increasing.

Given this snippet of information, we thought it appropriate to have a bit of a get together of some of the members of the Central Plateau Volcanic Advisory Group. Yesterday, we had a meeting in Taupo to make sure that our co-ordination plans were up to date and we were all on the same page. The snow storms of Tuesday night resulted in many of the roads around the region being closed and Annie (Ruapehu District) was unable to get through. We did have reps from DoC, GNS Science, Police, Waikato CDEM Group EOC, Horizons Regional Council (and Manawatu-Wanganui CDEM Group), Environment Waikato, Taupo District Council and the Ministry of Civil Defence & Emergency Management.

The meeting was very focused after an update from Brad Scott and I'm please to say that coordination arrangements are good to go. The agreement around the table about roles and responsibilities is excellent. Police are clearly the lead agency and the incident control point will be at Whakapapa. Good coordination of response agencies on the mountain is in place and an annual check of response plans has already been undertaken for the ski season.

We have tweaked the coordination arrangements and have agreed to exchange plans and improve inter-agency communications. Expectations on the CDEM Groups will also be minimal unless we have a volcanic event in conjunction with other incidents. The CDEM Groups will largely take a monitoring role and support the Incident Controller where requested.

So, for all those keen skiers and trampers out there, we are keeping our fingers on the pulse of the Central Plateau volcanoes and are confident that our emergency co-ordination arrangements are ready if they are needed. In the meantime though it looks like a fantastic season ahead so enjoy!