Report to FUTURE TAIRĀWHITI Committee for information

Transcription

1 Title: Section Prepared by: Civil Defence Emergency Management Report Transformation & Relationships W. Louise Bennett (Civil Defence & Emergency Manager) Meeting Date: 7 June 2018 Report to FUTURE TAIRĀWHITI Committee for information SUMMARY The purpose of this report is to inform the Committee of major activities undertaken in the last six months by the Tairāwhiti Civil Defence Emergency Management (CDEM) Team. Tairāwhiti CDEM manages Civil Defence and Marine Oil Spill for the Gisborne District Council (GDC). Key points covered in this report are: 1.0 Strategic 1.1 Civil Defence Emergency Management Plans Group Plan (Amended 2018) Welfare Plan Marine Oil Spill Tier 2 Contingency Plan Resilience Fund Applications. 2.0 New Initiative 2.1 Emergency Mobile Alerting 2.2 EMIS Business as Usual 3.1 CD Minister Visit 3.2 CDEM Office / Emergency Coordination Centre 3.3 Group Managers Meeting 3.4 Engagement and Presentations 3.5 Training 3.6 Exercises 3.7 Events 3.8 Marine Oil Spill A Page 1 of 10

2 RECOMMENDATION That the Future Tairawhiti Committee: 1. Notes the contents of the report. W. Louise Bennett Nedine Thatcher-Swann Civil Defence Emergency Manager Chief Executive A Page 2 of 10

3 1. Strategic 1.1 Group Plan By 1 June 2018* it is expected that CDEM Groups will have considered the first five strategic areas as detailed in the Directors Guidelines, and while the actions do not have to be completed by this date, the Plan will need to state the actions to be taken over the lifetime of the Plan and when they will be completed. Under Section 57 of the CDEM Act 2002 a Plan may be amended by the CDEM Group without a review of the Plan if the amendment will have no effect or no likely effect on the rights of any person and no effect or no more than a minor effect on the obligations of any person. The inclusion of Strategic Planning in the Tairawhiti CDEM Group Plan is considered as minor however the actions arising from this work will affect the communities and are considered major and therefore consultation will be required. This will commence in the 2018/2019 financial year. *The Group has not met the 1 June deadline because the Civil Defence Emergency Management Committee was not due to meet until 7 June and this report and the changes to the Group Plan would not be ratified until this meeting. A letter will be received from the Director Ministry Civil Defence Emergency Management regarding the 1 June deadline and a reply will be sent. See Appendix Welfare Plan 2018 The draft Welfare Plan was presented to Coordinating Executive Group (CEG) in April. A vigorous discussion was had regarding the proposed plan and changes recommended. Most of these changes have been made and the Welfare Plan is presented to the Group for ratification prior to becoming operational. See Appendix Group Recovery Plan The Recovery Plan is still awaiting further work. This work has stalled due to further work being done by the Ministry in the recovery area and priority given to finish the Group Welfare Plan. The actions arising from the consultation on strategic planning will be included in the Group Recovery Plan. 1.2 Marine Oil Spill Tier 2 Contingency Plan The Draft Gisborne District Council Marine Oil Spill Tier 2 Contingency Plan 2017 has been approved by Maritime NZ. The changes to the plan are minor and include removing the Tier 3 Marine Oil Spill National Plan chapters and updating contact details. Further work will be required to be completed over the next three years on Annex 4: Sensitive Sites - Cultural and Environmental Sites in Tairāwhiti. After the Council adopts the MOS Tier 2 Contingency Plan 2017 this Plan will become operational. See Appendix 3. A Page 3 of 10

4 1.3 TAG Technical Advisory Group (TAG) The recommendations from the Technical Advisory Group (TAG) were made public in January A team has been employed by the Ministry to look at the different work streams and see how they can make the recommendations work. The Group Manager met with the TAG Team in late March and informed the Team about our community link set up and how we operate in a response. When the Minister visited in May he met with some of the Councillors and Central Organising Roopu (COR) to discuss the outcome of the Review and how it may impact the Tairāwhiti area. One of the recommendations is to change the name of the Ministry to National Emergency Management Agency. Many of the Groups have already moved away from including civil defence in their organisation names and are now using Emergency Management although the civil defence logo is still part of their Group Logo. The reason behind the name change is that the Ministry and Groups want to remove the public perception that there is a civil defence army that we still see in the war films. The work that the Ministry and Groups do now is more than Civil Defence and the brand Emergency Management covers all aspects of this role. 1.4 Resilience Fund Applications For Tairāwhiti this would not mean a logo change on handouts or vehicle but by using the name Tairawhiti Emergency Management Group as seen on our logo Review of the Tsunami Inundation Zones In late 2017 the Ministry of Civil Defence & Emergency Management (MCDEM) offered Tairāwhiti CDEM the chance to receive funds that had not been spent from the Resilience Fund to review the tsunami zones and to create the three zones (red orange and yellow) used in other areas however this meant working to tight timeframes. Murry Cave (Shared Science Scientist) is managing the contractors and to date the project is on track to deliver the results by 30 June Modelling of smaller bays on the Coast such as Loisels, Whangara and Anaura Bay is also being done as in the past the evacuation maps have been drawn up placing a line 35m inland from the area. These areas now have increasing permanent residences as well as the summer influx that we need to look after. After the report is received there will be a need for a peer review before discussing the outcome of the work with the Natural Hazards Team at MCDEM. If the modelling shows a major change in the inundation areas then tsunami evacuation maps will need to be changed and engagement/education around this will be a major part of the 2018/19 Work Plan Fuel and Generator Plan Unused Funds for 2018/19 were again offered and an application for a Fuel and Generator Plan was made by Tairāwhiti CDEM and the Lifelines Group. We are still waiting a decision on this round of funding. A Page 4 of 10

5 2.0 New Initiative 2.1 Emergency Mobile Alerting (EMA) A nationwide test on 26 November 2017 was seen as successful with a Colmar Brunton Survey showing that 49% of the nation received, or were near someone who received the alert. Tairāwhiti CDEM promoted this new initiative with posters, Facebook posts and s to partners and media. However there were some expected handset behaviours such as: Some handsets that should have received the alert did not while other sets that were not believed to be capable received the alert. Some handsets received multiple alerts due to the set-up of the handset or changing between the 3G and 4G service. On Apple phones the alert was received but disappeared before it was able to be read and could not be found on the handset. The next nationwide test was scheduled for May but has been postponed after issues with the alert were found when used recently in New Plymouth, Nelson and Taranaki. The EMA has been used three times in New Zealand this year: Ammonia Leak Bell Block New Plymouth (issued by the Police on behalf of Fire and Emergency NZ). Cyclone Gitta- West Coast (while Westcoast CDEM was the lead agency but, after consultation with the key partners, this EMA was issued by Fire and Emergency NZ. Boil Water Notice Taranaki (The EMA issued by Taranaki CDEM, after consultation with the DHB/Ministry of Health. MCDEM Comments about the Use of EMAs Overall the system worked well however there were some inconsistencies between cell towers and handsets which MCDEM are working through with national mobile operators. Multiple alerts are received as the phone moves between 3G and 4G networks and the alert may be received on both networks. This cannot be fixed. There is also an issue with the number of characters used (more than 93) on the 3G network while some phones are configured to receive alert reminders every 15 minutes this can be switched off and new handsets will have this turned off as a default. Key partners, CDEM Group Managers and notified contacts should receive notification of alerts so they can provide further information if required. MCDEM are looking at sending out this notification by . Templates have been drawn up by MCDEM and the Ministry of Health and GNS have published GNS Science Report 2018/2 on Writing effective short message warning messages. This is a document that is an essential part of the EMA manual. 2.2 EMIS 3.0 In September 2016 a formal tender was initiated by MCDEM to enhance the EMIS system and was referred to as EMIS 3.0. At about the same time the Technical Advisory Group (TAG) Report was discussed and one of the recommendations was to invest in technology to ensure a fit for purpose Common Operating Picture so until this is sorted EMIS 3.0 is on hold. EMIS 2.0 is operational and can still be used for managing and recording emergency events. A Page 5 of 10

6 2.3 Fire and Emergency New Zealand Local Advisory Committees (LAC) The Fire and Emergency Act 2017 provides for the establishment of Local Advisory Committees as a way to ensure that community voices, interests and needs are well represented, understood and taken into account in Fire and Emergency s local planning. Cabinet recommended that 12 to 16 Local Advisory Committees be established nationally. By law, there must now be one Local Advisory Committee for each boundary so the final number will be determined following a decision on boundaries. The Local Advisory Committee boundaries define the geographical area that each committee represents. Different options were considered and the final proposal was for the boundaries to be aligned with the civil defence emergency management boundaries. The public were asked for their views and consultation closed on Friday 18 May. Tairāwhiti CDEM agreed with this proposal and put in a submission agreeing to the proposal because The Area Commanders (Fire and Police) and Chief Executives (GDC and DHB) all site on Coordinating Executive Group and already have strong relationships with the Second Tier Managers of the same emergency services sitting on the Emergency Services Committee (ESCC) There are also strong relationships with the communities and the Fire and Emergency Services and CDEM volunteers. CDEM promotes the 4Rs (reduction, readiness, response and recovery) and Fire and Emergency NZ promotes 3 of these Rs Currently the boundaries for the CDEM Groups are stable and not likely to change. The next step is to confirm the boundaries and establish the LACs in mid Business as Usual 3.1 CD Minister Visit The CD Minister, Honourable Kris Faafoi, made a flying visit to the city on Friday 4 May with his first stop being a Playcentre before arriving at Council to meet with the Mayor and Councillors, CDEM Staff, Community Link and local iwi. At the community link meeting acknowledgement was made of community link people who had been involved with CDEM for a number of years. At the conference this year MCDEM will be acknowledging Paul Solitt from Waiapu 40 years involvement, John Clarke 30 years, Pop Milner from Uawa 20 years and retiring to Gisborne. Ian Hunter and Hal Hovell will be recognised at an awards evening later in the year as well as other people many who have also been involved for 30 years. Representatives from the community link areas also met with members of the CDEM Response Team whom they had dealt with over the years during events by radio or phone but had never personally met. Before he left Gisborne Minister Faafoi met with firefighters at the Fire Station, Chambers of Commerce, Citizens Advice Bureau (CAB) and Gisborne Budget Advisory Service. 3.2 CDEM Office /Emergency Coordinating Centre (ECC) The CDEM team moved into Awarua in early January and by mid-february had the radio and storage rooms sorted out. A Page 6 of 10

7 Set up and patch plans (where computer and phone lines plugged in and corresponded with the IT system) have been developed for a small/medium Emergency Coordinating Centre (ECC) which will incorporate the Training and Committee Rooms. Both rooms have been physically set up to see how they will function as they will be used for many of our events. The large ECC using the Chambers as well as the Training Room and the Committee Room was set up on Friday 11 May and Emergency Partners, COR, Mayor, Gisborne District Council staff, CDEM Response Team and Emergency Managers came along to see the set up and see where we would operate from in an emergency event. There was positive feedback from all who came and Plans and SOPs have been developed for ease of set up as we may require to bring in people to set up the ECC during an emergency. 3.3 Group Managers Meeting The Regional Council Special Interest Group (SIG) meeting is held annually in March and looked at the TAG Review and other areas that are common to all Groups. Areas discussed by Group Managers were: CDEM staff (in other areas) are training their volunteers under the Integrated Training Framework (ITF). This offers courses in CDEM Foundation and Intermediate, Logistics, Public Information Management (PIM). Many CDEM staff are trained providers. There is a review of the Emergency Management Adult Continuing Education Fund (EM ACE) that offers unit standards such as CIMS 4. However this does not include the ITF courses that are favoured by many CDEM Groups. Cordon management and movement control was discussed after issues both at the Port Hills fire and Edgecumbe floods. The difference between a soft and hard cordon was discussed and the requirements of both. In some situations soft cordons are required and this needs to be managed by the ECC and keeping Cordon Wardens informed so that people who live in the area or have good reason can go into the area. Updates on the 24/7 on-call system for hazards this will hopefully be up and running by the end of the year. There was also discussion about amalgamating the CEG Chairs, Group Managers and Controllers Meetings. Most of the Group Managers are either Group Controllers or alternative Group Controllers and are finding they are attending meetings where the same information is covered. Some CEG Chairs have asked that their Group Managers attend the meetings with them to help with discussion. These meetings are invaluable in sharing information, learnings and resources. MCDEM have organised workshops for Group Managers looking at the future of the sector. These will be held quarterly with Group Managers becoming more engaged with the Ministry and the proposed changes. 3.4 Engagement Tarāwhiti CDEM published a handout in the Gisborne Herald on Saturday 2 December. This was well received by members of the public with many telling us they purchased the paper just to get the handout. A Page 7 of 10

8 The contents have been attached as Appendix 4. Facebook continues to be one of the tools we use as part of our business as usual and each week the number of people following is increasing. The post remembering Cyclone Bola was seen by over 27,000 people and the comments made about the event showed us the impact the event had on people and whanau. 3.5 Presentations Paul Stuart (Civil Defence Training Assistant) has presented to a few outside groups and also held three presentations for Gisborne District Council staff and Councillors. These were well received and we offer similar presentations to organisations, workplaces and groups in the Tairāwhiti area. CDEM was involved with the Council open day as well as hosting the Youth in Emergency Services (YES) for a couple of hours one Thursday evening. CDEM is working with GNS and East Coast LAB to bring a Natural Hazards Science Camp to Rural Schools. While the scientists will be talking with the students about natural hazards, CDEM will talk about readiness and response. These camps will take place in August/September Training Coordinated Incident Management System -CIMS 4 A CIMs 4 course was held for the response team volunteers. This course was funded through the EM ACE Fund for our CDEM volunteers. A CDEM volunteer is defined as Council staff whose main role is not involved with civil defence emergency management so this does not cover NZ Police or Fire and Emergency NZ personnel. This course was well received by those who attended. Psychosocial First Aid Workshop A workshop was held by Hauora Tairāwhiti and they offered three places to the CDEM Group and the following day a public course was held. Tairāwhiti CDEM paid for three Community Link Welfare Managers to attend the public course as well as sent three to the DHB course. All agreed it was a great course and we would like to put more of the team through. 3.7 Exercises CDEM is involved with other agency exercises, both in helping the agency organise their exercises and attending as participants. The Training Officer and Response Planning Manager attended the recent Police exercise in Hawkes Bay. Being involved in these exercises is a great learning experience for all parties. The CDEM Group Manager was also involved in the Maritime New Zealand (MNZ) national exercise in Auckland in April in her role as Waste Coordinator. Another staff member, Kelly Hosking is being trained up in this area as part of the NRT succession planning. CDEM was involved with Fire and Emergency NZ s rural fire vegetation exercise in May and played quite a major part as the scenario had the fire impacting Wainui and Okitu and evacuations required. A Page 8 of 10

9 As part of the exercise a declaration was required by the Mayor to evacuate people and the CDEM Controller decided upon a unified response with Fire and Emergency New Zealand in control of the fire and Tairawhiti CDEM involved with the evacuation, Public Information Management (PIM) and Welfare. A regional CDEM exercise is being planned for 2018/2019 but no date set yet. 3.8 Events Cyclone Bola Commemorations Cyclone Bola is the benchmark for many of the cyclones and ex-cyclones that reach land in New Zealand. Thirty years ago (7 and 8 March 1988) Cyclone Bola devastated the district and resulted in the tragic loss of three lives at Mangatuna near Tolaga Bay. Many lessons were learnt and improvements made as the result of the cyclone s impact on our area. Our community link teams were created and the radio network established. After 30 years our community link teams are stronger than ever and the radio system has been replaced by digital radios. We paid tribute to the past on Facebook with 27,577 people viewing the post and people telling their tales and sharing their memories of that event. It is true that some events will stay with us forever. I also attended a commemoration ceremony on the Saturday in Tolaga Bay with Councillor Seymour remembering the event, especially, the three people who died. The Gisborne Herald paid tribute to the event in the Weekender, however I felt this did not capture the work that the Council had done over the years. So, in conjunction with the Gisborne Herald, an article was published in the paper on Wednesday 7 March. That article is attached as Appendix 5. Ex Cyclone Hola There have been a couple of ex-cyclones that have passed over New Zealand with Feihi and Gitta moving down the West Coast and ex-cyclone Hola moving down the East Coast and putting us all on stand-by. The severe weather warnings were sent out and the GDC modelling showed us if the forecast weather had arrived then flooding of low lying areas could have occurred in the early hours of Tuesday morning. The text and alerts for the Taruheru and Waimata Rivers were sent out in daylight hours (Monday 4pm) advising people that they may want to consider moving outside furniture and boats to higher ground. Fortunately the ex-cyclone moved further east and out to sea the rainfall totals and wind gusts did not eventuate and the warnings were cancelled. 3.9 Marine Oil Spill Exercises An equipment deployment exercise was held in late November This was based at the Marina carpark and involved the Wildlife Adviser from Massey, Ministry Primary Industry (MPI) vessel and staff. Mick Courtnell from MNZ assessed some of the team (every two years responders are assessed on their ability and the way they used the equipment) and was positive about the learnings from the exercise. A Page 9 of 10

10 The next exercise in June will be a table-top looking at the Tier 2 Plan where to find the information and how to use the Plan. Five of the GDC Marine Oil Spill Team (two GDC staff and three outside team members) were involved with national exercise Paihere in Auckland in April. National exercises are held every two years in different parts of New Zealand. Events The Jay Patricia was grounded on the beach by the Waipaoa River Mouth in the early hours of 24 th April and an attempt to refloat was made by the fishing vessel later that day. The MOS team monitored the event on the Tuesday and prepared an Action Plan for the next day when the Port Company was preparing a refloat. Booms were set up near the Waipaoa River mouth ready to deploy but were not required and the vessel refloated just before 1pm on Wednesday 25 th April. The area is very culturally and environmentally sensitive and this was taken into account in the Planning. We are fortunate that one of our responders is a contractor and has trailers and a side by side available for us to use during events. The invoice has been sent to the owners for payment. APPENDICES Appendix 1: The Group Plan as amended in Appendix 2: Group Welfare Plan 2018 Appendix 3: Appendix 4: Appendix 5: Marine Oil Spill Tier 2 Contingency Plan Gisborne Herald Supplement Article from Gisborne Herald. A Page 10 of 10