The Auckland Civil Defence and Emergency Management Group Committee will receive the independent review of Auckland’s response to the 10 April 2018 storm event on Wednesday 28 November.
This review was carried out by independent consultant David Smol following a committee request to look at how Auckland’s emergency management agencies responded to the storm that caused widespread power outages across the region.
Committee Chair Councillor Sharon Stewart says the review is a thorough look at how each agency responded and offers up some recommendations for continuous improvement.
“We estimate that more than half a million Aucklanders were affected by this storm, in a variety of ways, necessitating a significant response from the council’s emergency management and operations functions, emergency services, welfare and lifelines agencies.
“Mr Smol’s report acknowledges a successful and sustained effort from our agencies, as well as some very useful recommendations to make future responses even more effective.
“We are experiencing more storm events across New Zealand as a result of changing climate patterns and storm impacts are being experienced by more people, as our population grows.
“The Auckland Civil Defence and Emergency Management Group Committee, which includes representatives from the response agencies as well as the council, will get an opportunity to discuss and receive Mr Smol’s report next week,” says Cr Stewart.
Report highlights and agencies’ response
- Continue to build constructive relationships amongst group members at both operational and governance levels – already underway through the Coordinating Executive Group and inter-agency working groups.
- Agree a common approach for use of the Coordinated Incident Management System (CIMS) methodology – those agencies not using CIMS on a regular basis are addressing this gap and increasing their CIMs capabilities.
- Review call centre, website and app capacity for front line response agencies and explore interoperability opportunities – joint working groups are being formed to review this and improvements are already being made as part of the council’s business as usual work programmes.
- Work with organisations like MetService on ways of anticipating nature and extent of storm predictions – build on existing relationship with MetService and review current internal monitoring systems for opportunities for technical improvement.
- Review mobilisation of the Emergency Coordination Centre, recruitment processes and mobilisation of staff, including staff support and coordination – new initiatives, including a weekly meeting and work programme of a ‘peace time’ Incident Management Team made up of response function leads have already been introduced to address this recommendation.
The report will be presented to the meeting of the Auckland Civil Defence and Emergency Management Group Committee on Wednesday 28 November with the recommendation that the report be noted and improvement actions be undertaken. Read the independent review of the April storm and committee agenda item.
