The April e-bulletin is now available

The April issue of e-bulletin is now online. Here's the link:

In this issue…

Exercise Tangaroa agency participation

Regional tsunami seminars reminder

Website established for EMIS project

CDEM Gold and Silver Awards - call for nominations

CDEM welfare update

Maule Chile earthquake mission

Melbourne hail storm early warning report

Christchurch City CDEM trial new community engagement tools

Disaster Awareness Week: name change to Get Ready Week

CDEM Professional Development

CDEM research

New EMIS project website

The Ministry of Civil Defence & Emergency Management in conjunction with Intergen have just launched a website for keeping the sector informed on development of the new Emergency Management Information System (EMIS) being provided by E-sponder.

Here is the link to the EMIS Project Information Website.

All quiet on the western front...

Well, things just seem to be ticking over quietly here in the Emergency Management Office (now watch, I've probably just jinxed that). A nice steady work flow seems to be keeping us busy with flood action plans under review, the Triennial Business Plan just being finished off, training courses, EMC meetings and contributions to the development of the EMIS. Personally, I think the EMIS is going to be the best thing since sliced bread - watch this space.

If you haven't spotted it already, you can follow MCDEM on Twitter - have a look here for more info. You can also follow us (HorizonsEM@gmail.com).

The latest e-bulletin was also recently published by MCDEM.

Our response to the recent tsunami threat went smoothly, although we did have a few problems updating our website. I'd also like to reinforce that the blog will not be used for that sort of thing (I've had a couple of people ask). MCDEM will be running a tsunami seminar in Palmerston North on 27 April partly in the build up for Exercise Tangaroa in October.

GNS Science tsunami survey

GNS Science are seeking feedback on the Chilean tsunami impacts on New Zealand:

Our tsunami survey

We'd like to hear about your experiences, as well as see any of your tsunami photos and video.

We have set up an online questionnaire that we'd really like you to fill out for us. It will only take about two minutes of your time: http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/W35LZK2

We've also set up a GeoNet Facebook page for you to share your thoughts, photos and video. In your web browser, please go to http://www.facebook.com/, login and search for 'geonet'or just follow this link: http://tinyurl.com/geonet-fb-page

If you have any tsunami-related videos or photos already posted to places like YouTube and Flickr, it would be very useful if you could "tag" them with the word 'geonet' so we can locate them easily.

Why are we doing it?

The last time that New Zealand was affected by a South American tsunami was in 1960, so these are uncommon events. This makes it a valuable opportunity to compile data, observations, photos and videos to better understand the effects across the nation. The knowledge of what tsunami have done to New Zealand in the past helps to verify the computer simulations we are now able to perform. This Chilean tsunami is another opportunity for us to add to that long-term knowledge.

Not ready to get thru

The Minister has issued a media release today...

Despite the death and destruction caused by the massive earthquakes in Haiti and Chile this year, most New Zealanders are still complacent about preparing for such an event here, Minister of Civil Defence John Carter said today.

Statistics released today – the New Zealand General Social Survey 2008 fact sheet on preparedness for natural disasters – show that just 15 percent of households are well prepared for a natural disaster with enough food and water stored to last three days and an emergency plan.

“Last weekend, while authorities were preparing for a tsunami in the wake of the Chile earthquake, some New Zealanders were still not taking the situation seriously or heeding the warnings,” Mr Carter says.

“Most people realise these warnings are not issued lightly though and went to seek out information. There were 44,000 visitors to the Ministry of Civil Defence and Emergency Management’s website www.civildefence.govt.nz on Sunday. But leaving it until the day of a disaster might be too late.

“New Zealand is vulnerable to unpredictable natural disasters such as earthquakes and tsunami, as well as weather related emergencies. People need to know what this means and that they won’t always get a warning.

“While we have excellent civil defence emergency planning, as we witnessed last weekend, how well prepared communities and individuals are is what will make the difference on the day there is an emergency situation.

“There will be a period of time when households and communities might be isolated and without essential services. There may be massive infrastructure damage taking out roads, airports, rail tracks, power, telecommunications and water.

“We are also geographically isolated from our nearest neighbours on whom we might call for help, so any international emergency response might take days.

“Every household needs to have a plan for this eventuality. Get your family or household together and agree on a plan. This includes knowing where to shelter in an earthquake, flood or storm; knowing where you will all meet up during and after a disaster; and knowing where you have emergency survival items stored.

"Every household also needs to be prepared for evacuation with a basic getaway kit.

“Perhaps also get the household together and research what happens when a major earthquake occurs and what a tsunami is. On Sunday people were quoted as saying they would run if a tsunami hit but of course, you cannot run as fast as a tsunami surge.”

The fact sheet is available at:

http://www.stats.govt.nz/Publications/SocialConditions/natural-disaster-preparation-at-home-factsheet

Controller's Forum

The annual Controller's Forum was held yesterday at Manawatu District Council. This was an excellent opportunity for the Local and Group Controllers from the Group to get together with the EMOs and discuss current issues. We covered all of the topics mentioned in the earlier post about the forum... and had the advantage of having activated over the weekend.

A major item covered that was not on the original list was an update of the flood plain mapping and flood forecasting work that is being undertaken by Horizons Regional Council. Jeff Watson provided participants with a good overview of these two significant projects (worth around $2.8M so far). Jeff also gave us an insight into the potential future use of the data using WaterRide software recently purchased by the Council.

General feedback at the conclusion of the Forum was that it had been a worthwhile day for learning and networking. We should consider running a couple per year.

Group ECC activation

The Manawatu-Wanganui CDEM Group's Emergency Co-ordination Centre and Tararua Emergency Operations Centre were both activated for the tsunami response over the weekend. There was plenty of lead time for this event albeit with the waves first arriving reasonably early on Sunday morning. The Group response was similar to that for the Samoa event however evacuations were not recommended. All arrangements and personnel were in place to respond if evacuations were considered necessary after observations had been made at the Chatham Islands. In the end the community opted to move away from the foreshore and did so in quite an orderly fashion.

The Akitio webcam was adjusted to increase the refresh rate from about hourly to every minute. This gave us a good idea of sea conditions and whether there were people around. It's nice to actually use the camera for its intended purpose. We also kept a close eye on the GeoNet de-tided gauge (which is still showing signs of tsunami slosh today [yes that's my technical terminology]).

We did have a few problems updating the text on our webpage - but we're working on that. We also received an overwhelming number of e-mails and attachments. I think the introduction of the EMIS will go a long way to improving the sharing of information between Groups and MCDEM and minimising the number of e-mails that I'll just mark as read.

All-in-all, a much better effort on the public front this time. Still a number of operational improvements that can be made (and we're working on that). Here's an animation of wave propagation that you might like.

Emergency and armed services open day

On Saturday the 20th, the combined emergency and armed services open day was held at Manfield in Feilding. This was an excellent opportunity for the services to demonstrate their capability to the public for free.

Displays by Police, Fire, St John, Air Force, Army, Coastguard, Helipro and the Square Trust rescue helicopter, PNCC civil defence, neighbourhood support and the CDEM Group made it an interesting collection of capabilities and 'toys' to look at. A variety of central demonstrations were also carried out in the middle of the arena during the day.

The PNCC team focus was on their REST capability and survival items whereas the Group's airshelter display was adapted to present flood protection works for the Makino Stream in Feilding. Evan Lloyd is pictured discussing the Makino Diversion Structure with a local resident.

A huge congratulations to the organising team for pulling off such a great day.

There's a lot going on...

Things have been very busy in the Emergency Management Office this month. Here are a few of the things we've been up to:

• Tararua A&P Show was a couple of weekends ago. Good crowds on the Saturday despite the very hot weather. Some of the team cooked in the AirShelter - so much so we went and hired an aircon unit.
• Ruapehu A&P Show last weekend. We took the display up to Taumarunui and set it up for Annie and her team to staff on the Saturday.
• This weekend we have the Emergency and Armed Services Open Day in Feilding - a different display for this one, focus on the Reid Line spillway. This is a local flood protection structure.
• We've got all of our ducks in a row for Central Districts Field Days in March so its just a matter of showing up for the event.
• AEGIS Map is now open to a select few for testing and proof of concept. We're keeping a close eye on E-sponder and the EMIS project too.
• Navigation safety risk assessments for the Whanganui River are underway along with a review of the bylaws on the Manawatu River
• The EOC in Marton has been gutted for library renovations and a temporary facility has been established in the rural fire depot.
• Welfare Centre kits have been assembled and are being delivered in the next week or two to our Centres.
• The Triennial Business Plan is being worked on.
• Preparations are underway for the Controller's Forum on 1 March and the Conferenz conference next week.
• Neighbourhood Support meetings are happening across Manawatu in conjunction with other services.
• Monitoring and evaluation interviews with MCDEM staff are happening next week too.

All-in-all, there's enough to keep our minds occupied. We've been lucky with a lack of big events to derail our projects.