Doing our bit to help

A few familiar faces from Palmerston North converged on the National Crisis Management Centre to assist in co-ordinating the response to the M7.1 earthquake in Canterbury. Braden Austin was called in to undertake the role of Lifeline Utility Coordinator, Jock Robinson in logistics support and me (Shane Bayley) in planning/intelligence support. I don't think Jock even knew I was taking his pic.

As it happened, we bumped into other (former and current) CEG members from the Manawatu-Wanganui CDEM Group... Murray Mills in his Ministry of Health role and Stewart Brown from NZ Defence Force.

I left the NCMC yesterday morning to return home because of flooding so it might not have been much, but every little bit helps I'm sure. Making a professional contribution and gaining experience during real events is an important part of participating in the sector.

Working on the website

Well, it's taken a while but I've been working on the new CDEM Group website with Glen today. We are making progress and will be doing a 'soft launch' of the site really soon so that the Emergency Management Officers can have an opportunity to build on the content.

We are still struggling with a nice URL for the site and despite that fact that there have been a few good ideas floated, we are still stuck with www.mwcdemg.govt.nz I know - it's a stunner. If you have any cool ideas for a URL for the Manawatu-Wanganui Civil Defence Emergency Management Group - please, let us know.

We hope to do a launch of the site later in the year and will start promoting it as soon as we can.