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Auckland Council’s Emergency Management department (AEM) is trying to ensure Rodney communities are better supported and not left stranded when weather events and other hazards strike in future.
Following reviews into its response to last year’s floods and cyclone, a senior community advisor for Rodney has been appointed and a new public Emergency Readiness and Response Plan is being drawn up.
A Rodney Local Board workshop heard on April 10 that the aim was to provide comprehensive information on how people could prepare for emergencies, coordinate and understand local procedures, and know what to do and where to go if and when disaster struck.
Former park ranger Glenn Browne said he had spent the aftermath of the Auckland Anniversary floods and Cyclone Gabrielle at the coal face of civil defence and recovery in West Auckland, and he was keen to help local communities prepare for future events.
As Rodney’s new senior community planning and readiness advisor, as well as for the Upper Harbour and Hibiscus & Bays local board areas, he is now the main link between communities, board members and AEM.
Browne said he was spending much of his time at present meeting and building relationships with community groups, of which Rodney was particularly well served.
“This is the most resilient board we’ve got, there are 27 amazing groups out there, so part of my job is leveraging off those existing groups and really supporting them to help them grow,” he said, before acknowledging Rodney Neighbourhood Support’s Sue Robertson, in particular, for her “incredible work”.
Warkworth member Ivan Wagstaff, who played a key role with Robertson in helping stranded drivers when floods closed SH1 last year, said though Browne and six other advisors each had three board areas to look after, his job was harder due to the sheer size of Rodney.
“I wonder if the resourcing is correct, in that the amount of work and scope of what you have to do is much greater than everybody else?” he said.
Chair Brent Bailey agreed.
“You’ve got a big job. The hazards are largely due to geography, not population, and what you have is half the physical size of Auckland.”
Bailey also reminded Brown and his co-presenter, AEM head of planning Anna Wallace, that the resilience and local knowledge of isolated rural communities had been compromised by council policy in the past
“In the previous decade, we shrank civil defence away from those physical locations into a job of planning and communication coordination, and it didn’t work. So how are we going to deal with that?” he asked.
“The key thing from the last time is we didn’t tell people to stay in place and we didn’t stop people driving, travelling, or trying to continue on their trip north or south for the long weekend, so I hope that we are more cognisant of the hazards, and we’ve figured out how we can act early, to prevent some of the worst of what happened last time.”
Wellsford member Colin Smith agreed.
“We have to be ready ourselves and you need to be in communication with us so we know what we’re doing. Last time it was just a mess. We were cut off for days,” he said.
Wallace said AEM was taking a much more proactive stance since last year’s events to make sure they weren’t on the back foot in future.
“I understand in the past, before Cyclone Gabrielle and the flood events, there was a reluctance to stand-up the control centre unless there was something really urgent happening, but we’re taking a much more proactive response now,” she said.
The draft Rodney Emergency Readiness and Response Plan will be brought to a local board workshop for feedback in August.
Info: Email aeminfo@aucklandcouncil.co.nz or visit https://www.aucklandemergencymanagement.org.nz/
