Watery webcams Batman

The Opiki webcam has been in place for a few months now. This is the first time we've seen water across the floodway since it was installed. The image is updated regularly as an indication as to whether the road is flooded or not. We still refer people to the AA Roadwatch site for the official line as we are not the roading authority. I'll talk more later about what we are doing with webcams.

We had a bit of a busy day yesterday and although communities close to the ranges seemed to be hit the hardest some areas remain completely calm and clear. Storm damage to the Pohangina Valley and Kauwhatau areas and throughout Horowhenua district kept services busy and power will remain off for a few days yet in some areas.

The Horizons EOC operated well and was really only a small event for the EOC staff to manage. Systems and procedures worked well and a few minor improvements will be made. We will also be keen to pick up on any improvements recommended by the Horowhenua EOC staff who are still operational today.

We got off lightly

Although there were some reports of damage across the region over the weekend, all-in-all we got off pretty lightly compared to our northern neighbours. It wouldn't have taken much for the weather bomb to swing a couple of degrees and head our way though.

The Emergency Management Duty Officer was not particularly busy over the weekend but we did take the opportunity to have a play with MS Groove during the build up phase. Evan had this to say about it... "Seems to work quite well and if I wasn't convinced of its full value before, I am now." If things had escalated, we would have shared the workspace with other EOCs that have already installed Groove.

The photo was provided by one of the Council staff who had a few problems at home over the weekend! Thanks Kerri.

Still watching the weather

The hydro team have had a few technical challenges this week with some of our telemetry equipment. Things seem to be up and running again now just in time for a couple of weather fronts coming through tonight and again early next week.

EMOs around the North Island have been testing systems and procedures in anticipation of tonights front and duty officers are on alert. Horowhenua have advised a change in mode to level 1 (monitoring). Horizons Emergency Management Duty Officer is of course in mode 1 for all weather warnings received for the region.

The ground is pretty saturated around the region and river systems won't take much to rise quickly. Availability of some key staff was checked prior to the weekend and EOC readiness double checked. So get out your gummies and rain coats folks we could be in for a wet week or so.

The picture is the current map from the MetService but check them out for the most up to date version.

The Green RIG at Parliament

The RIG visited Parliament today with participants of the Minister's Forum being briefed on the day-to-day role of the RIG and the emergency management use as an EOC if necessary. We took up the whole front access to Parliament and passers-by had the opportunity to visit the RIG and look at the earthquake cubes. The Minister was pleased to see we had a picture of him on the cubes too.

A number of local EMOs and MCDEM staff took the opportunity to visit and learn a bit about the environmental education programmes and RIG as an EOC.

PIMs ponder possibilities

A meeting of our Group's Public Information Managers, held in Feilding today, provided an excellent opportunity to share what is happening in the world of CDEM, learn from Exercise Regroup and think about where to from here.

Vince Cholewa from MCDEM provided an update on the Ministry activities including professional development opportunities in Christchurch later this year, disaster awareness week (2nd week in October, here is a link to last year's info), and a Te Reo version of What's the Plan Stan being launched this week.

I provided an update on CDEM Group activities, particularly the Plan review, review of the public education strategy, the exercise, use of Groove and answered lots of questions around g-mail and how we can exchange information during an event. Sharing information and helping each other out during smaller events will certainly help to make things smoother during the large events. The PIMS have agreed to share information about media contacts (and PIM contact details) in an effort to collectively become better informed. The introduction of Groove will help PIMS maintain contact data in future.

All-in-all, a really worthwhile meeting and all agreed to meet again later in the year to build on the meetings to date.

Science alert bulletin

Not currently available via the GeoNet site, but here is the latest on Ruapehu.

VOLCANO ALERT BULLETIN: RUA-08/04

3 pm Monday, 21 July 2008

Ruapehu Volcano – Unrest declines

Alert Level Remains at 1

Science Alert Level 1

Ruapehu is showing signs of a decline in the level of unrest. Gas output, lake temperatures and volcanic tremor have all declined. The volcano last erupted on 25^th September 2007.The Alert Level remains at Level 1.

Ongoing monitoring at Ruapehu, including a Crater Lake visit to measure the lake temperature and collect water samples, data from airborne gas measurements and seismic activity, have shown declines in the recent measurements. This indicates that the current period of elevated unrest is passing.

The Crater Lake temperature has now dropped to around 23 to 25 ° C, having ranged from 34 to 37° C since October 2007. The latest measurement was 23.3° C (15 July). The airborne gas plume measurements which had shown significant increases after April 2008 now show that SO₂ and CO₂ gas emissions have decreased to the typical background levels for Ruapehu.

Results from the Crater Lake chemistry are also indicative of cooling in the vent area. The slight increase in the level of volcanic tremor we previously reported has also declined to typical background levels.

These observations are consistent with the volcano-hydrothermal system now cooling. The current phase of volcano unrest appears to be over, however Ruapehu remains an active volcano. Future eruptions may occur without warning.

The Alert Level remains at Level 1 (Departure from typical background surface activity, signs of unrest).

Contact:

Brad Scott

Volcano Surveillance coordinator

GNS Science

Mass evacuation

This is not something we do after church!

The Director's Guide on mass evacuation planning has just been received by the Group and circulated to local EMOs. I am expecting the tsunami run-up modelling results through in the next few days and the two of these projects sit nicely together. We have received some test data from GNS to make sure that our system can cope with the format they have produced the models in (and it can).

It won't be too long before we can sit down and develop a strategic approach to tsunami risk response for the Group. If you would like a copy of the Mass Evacuation Planning Guide, it can be found here.

Checking our direction

The first of the mini workshops for the Group Plan review is to address the strategic direction of the Group. We intend to consider the vision of the Group which should be more than the one-liner provided to us, the issues that may impede that vision, and a review of the issues listed in the current Group Plan. CEG members are invited to participate in this workshop at Horizons Regional Council, 28th July 13:00 - 17:00hrs.

Participants are encouraged to give some thought to the future of the Group. I am willing to post or circulate any prepared material you might have to support this topic, just let me know. Here is the material I have prepared to get the conversation under way. This material in no way reflects the Group's view and is intended as a conversation starter only.

Keeping a weather eye...

The heavy rain over the weekend kept the Horizons and Wanganui District Council teams on watch. The Horizons EOC was activated for a few hours on Saturday afternoon to monitor and assess the Whanganui catchment. Early forecasts suggested that we could be in for a flood in Wanganui. As peak river height times got closer the model runs were lower than originally thought and the team stood down.

The Horizons river level alerting system made hundreds of phone calls over the weekend notifying people as the rivers rose through alarm levels. The system worked well despite needing a re-boot part way through the event.

The new Whanganui Flood Action Plan and automated flood forecasting system were both tested for the first time . The river levels only required the Plan to be activated to about 1/2 way. We have spotted a couple of minor adjustments we can make but on the whole the Plan is pretty good. The modelling worked well for the upper end of the catchment but still requires a little massaging for the lower reaches. The experts will be on to this over the next few weeks.

I think we played it fairly cautiously this time, but that provides me with a lot of comfort that the team can do what we have all committed to in the Plan.

Training coordinator and CEM

Congratulations to Evan Lloyd for being nominated by EMANZ as 'Training Coordinator of the Year'. Evan will find out at the EMANZ graduation on 9th August whether he has won this category... all the best Evan.

I will be talking with Steve Glassey (IAEM Board member) next week about advancing the Certified Emergency Manager programme and hope that a few emergency management professionals in the region take up the opportunity to become involved in this internationally recognised accreditation. Here is a link to the CEM brochure and here is a link to the CEM study guide. In essence, the International Association of Emergency Managers runs the programme to provide a standard for EM professionals. On-going demonstration of a contribution to the sector and professional development are required to maintain certification. In this respect, the programme is like many professional registers that ensure their members are current in the industry.

Earthquake prone buildings

One of the territorial authority matters that has been simmering away in the background is the requirement for TAs to have an earthquake prone buildings policy. Clare Hadley (Chief Executive, Rangitikei District Council) has sought my input from an emergency management perspective and highlighted a potential need to adopt a consistent approach for the CDEM Group activities.

We will include an item in the next CEG agenda on earthquake prone buildings in order to promote discussion on the types of buildings we would expect are needed for post event emergency management activities. Perhaps this too is a heads up for emergency services to determine the level of importance of facilities under their control.

Controller's manual

Hopefully this one hasn't gone unnoticed. MCDEM have developed a revised Controller's Manual... now called the 'Response Management: Director's Guide for CDEM Group and Local Controllers DGL06/08'. I suspect we will be calling it the Controller's Manual for a while yet.

Hard copies of Controller's Manual will be circulated soon. Here is a link to the new version so that you can download it (it's 1Mb).

Tsunami pilot project

For several months now we've been working with GNS Science to undertake some modelling of our regional coasts. Manawatu-Wanganui CDEM Group, Wellington and Northland are all taking part in a pilot project based on the nationally agreed guidelines for tsunami run-up modelling and evacuation zone development. Part of the delay in being able to do the modelling has been waiting for agreement on the national standard.

The Ministry roadshow on tsunami activities attracted a good crowd in Palmerston North this week and Dr. Graham Leonard gave a few of us a sneak preview of some of the modelling for the region. In the next few weeks, we can expect to receive the report that will describe expected areas of inundation for tsunami events on our coasts. This information will be used to inform the decisions about evacuation zones, routes, safe areas, warning procedures etc. etc. etc.

A big chunk of work will be taking this report to the communities potentially affected by tsunami and discussing how the community would like to handle the response. Some work undertaken by Northland has set an excellent example for our Group to follow, so we will take their lessons and use them to the advantage of our communities.

We'll keep you posted of developments.

'Unusual unrest' on Ruapehu

From stuff.co.nz

Crater lake temperatures and gas on Mt Ruapehu remain stubbornly high, nine months after its last eruption, GNS Science says.

"That doesn't mean an eruption is likely, but the current unrest is unusual," GNS Science volcano surveillance coordinator Brad Scott said today.

Crater lake temperatures and gas levels usually follow a predictable pattern of returning to normal after eruptions, he said.

Horizons Regional Council emergency manager Shane Bayley called a meeting of emergency management agencies last week for a briefing by GNS Science and to brush up on Mt Ruapehu eruption response plans.

"We identified ways to improve communications between agencies including councils, GNS Science, Ministry of Civil Defence and Emergency Management, Civil Defence Emergency Management groups, Department of Conservation and police," Mr Bayley said.

"While no predictions can be made about what might happen in the future, based on the unusual levels of unrest on the mountain, it makes good sense to be fully prepared."

He said police would lead the response on the mountain to any eruption and Ruapehu operators had worked with police and DOC to ensure appropriate reactions.

"We would like to reassure the public that the situation on Ruapehu is being watched closely by the Central Plateau Volcanic Advisory Group," said Mr Bayley.

Adieu, adieu, adieu

Well that's about my limit when it comes to foreign languages!

A few farewells and thanks are in order. Firstly, Malinda Nash is leaving the region to take up a new role at the Ministry of Civil Defence & Emergency Management. Malinda was formerly with MidCentral DHB in the pandemic planning role and then contracted to us to help write and deliver Exercise Regroup.

Matthew Smith, Head of Civil Defence and Emergency Management at Palmerston North City Council is moving desk and taking up the role of Development Services Manager within the Council. Matt will remain as a CDEM Local Controller for the City. Here is a link to the advertised position for the CDEM role.

Finally Stan Dulieu finishes with Rangitikei District Council as our contract takes effect with Manawatu and Rangitikei from today. Stan has been working for PEC in Marton on a part-time basis for a while now and will continue to support us in civil defence and rural fire activities for the local community.

I'd like to wish everyone well for their new adventures and thank you all for your contributions to CDEM in our Group. It's really nice that none of these players will be disappearing completely from the scene.