Can It Happen Here?

Paul Nickalls,
Hutt Valley Emergency Manager

The recent fire tragedies in Victoria and the stabbing of a teacher at an Auckland High School are examples of the importance of emergency information and warning systems for communities that is both timely and relevant to that particular community.

The Royal Commission of Enquiry into the Victoria Fires has been established against a backdrop of emergency text alerting, coordination and information sharing that is shaping up to have been considerably less than effective.

Many of the public and politicians are asking ‘can it happen here?  Does not a similar situation exist here in NZ?  We certainly have the lack of coordination of warning and information systems that have been experienced in Australia!

Here at the Hutt Valley Emergency Management Office we decided that rather than sit around arguing the pros and cons, we would select the best system to meet our needs (it happens to be the only one), commit ourselves and our community, and move forward.  The Mayors and Counselors of Hutt City Council and Upper Hutt City Council had the vision and foresight to encapsulate what we proposed and gave full endorsement to the decision.

What we found was that Readynet not only gave us the ability to warn our community and provide us with critical information in an emergency but provided us with a tool to engage that community (schools - age care - early child care) in preparedness planning.  Readynet doesn’t just sit on the shelf waiting for something to happen.  We use the system every day as a tool to get them to think about their local hazards and prepare relevant emergency plans for their organization and their staff on site and at home.

Vulnerable sites now have an evacuation plan - flooding / tsunami /chemical / rural fire - printed in their plan and also available on line for us to see where they would evacuate to along with how they would get there.  We now have core information details - numbers on site for evacuations - issues such as special needs people - chemicals on site and location – something that both the New Zealand Police and New Zealand Fire Service would find invaluable when they receive an emergency call to premises.

Vulnerable community members living at home with an impairment now have the opportunity to have their coordinator well informed and able to provide early support should the need arise.

We can and have used the text and Email warning function of Readynet to warn sections of the community on at least three occasions in the past 18 months.  Firstly for flooding at a car park for 750 cars on the riverbank, a chlorine fire causing wind-borne chemical hazard at Seaview and a localized heavy rain warning from Met Service.  These warnings are specific to the audience and the incident - not a broadcast that causes fear and confusion in the entire community as was the case in Victoria.

Our council provides Readynet free to users in our community taking financial pressure off them and demonstrates the commitment to preparedness and response that both the Hutt City and Upper Hutt City Councils have to their community.

The thing that has made Readynet so successful in providing accurate up-to-date information is that it is Web based and accessible to all users - they input their information and keep it up to date - something that has resulted in a huge reduction in the work load for our emergency management staff as we no longer have out of date plans and old phone numbers on record.

We have been very pleasantly surprised at how Readynet has enabled us to build relationships within the community that will clearly serve the Valley well in the time of an emergency due to the prior contact and there is now a sense of partnership within the community quite evident.

Readynet for the Hutt Valley Emergency Management Office is all about preparedness planning and the early warning of any pending incident.