Local boards back emergency recovery plan

Publish Date : 29 Jul 2019
Quake

Franklin Local Board has joined its colleagues on the Howick and Papakura boards, calling for a plan for how Auckland would recover after a disaster to be widely circulated.

Auckland Council principal recovery advisor Wayne Brown has told the boards the city’s disaster recovery programme has been renamed Pathways to Preparedness: A Planning Framework to Recovery.

It has been developed with local board feedback to ensure Auckland is prepared to recover from disaster, and now input is being sought on community values and priorities, the plan’s vision, and work still to be done to be better prepared for recovery.

All three boards' members say the finalised plan must be widely-shared, so people have as much information as possible on what to do during and after an emergency.

Both Franklin and Papakura, which include rural areas, also called for special attention to be directed at rural, farming, coastal and other isolated communities.

The need for a plan was identified in the wake of the Christchurch and Kaikoura earthquakes, which saw the Civil Defence Emergency Management Act 2002 amended, requiring better preparation for disaster recovery.

Auckland Emergency Management began developing a Resilient Recovery Strategy, now the preparedness plan. It outlines a process to recovery involving:

  • Identifying community values and priorities
  • Setting the recovery vision
  • Anticipation of consequences, hazards and risks
  • Addressing barriers to recovery
  • Identifying actions to build momentum.

Because many parts of the Auckland Council will be involved in responding to a disaster, the plan seeks to clarify what will be required to support collaboration across the recovery agencies.

Local boards have been invited to provide feedback that will be considered for inclusion in the final plan, which will be  presented to the Civil Defence Emergency Management Group Committee in August.

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