If you’re out and about in the Auckland region on Friday 2 May, you may see a hive of activity around some of our community centres as our emergency responders take part in Auckland’s biggest emergency relief and welfare-focused emergency response exercise.
Auckland Emergency Management’s Head of Business and Welfare John Cavanagh says this is an ambitious exercise, designed to test our emergency relief community support functions.
“Firstly, if you see emergency responders, Auckland Emergency Management staff and even some volunteer ‘actors’ busily setting up a civil defence centre in your local area, don’t be alarmed!
“We’re putting our emergency relief and welfare plans through their paces on Friday, which includes physically setting up sites and working in collaboration with our agency partners and community organisations.
“I can’t give too much away about the scenario – the nature of an exercise means we like to keep the details as real as possible, which means delivering them to our teams in ‘real time’ – but what I can say is that it will be a severe weather event.
“It won’t come as a surprise to many why we’ve chosen weather – Auckland is experiencing more of these volatile weather events and the impacts of severe weather can be widely felt,” he says.
Do you have a plan?
Preparing your home or property and making a plan with friends, neighbours and family can go a long way to staying safe in an emergency. Some emergencies may mean you need to leave your home at short notice.
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Know your risk: visit Auckland Council’s Flood Viewer to find out if your home or property will be affected by flooding (take the link or search ‘Auckland Council flood viewer’).
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Visit aucklandemergencymanagement.govt.nz for guides on making a plan and preparing for an emergency.
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getready.govt.nz also has lots of useful information, including alternate formats like New Zealand Sign Language; audio, large print, easy read and Braille guides; and translated information.
Weather forecasts and alerts
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MetService is New Zealand’s national weather authority and Government-approved sole provider of severe weather warnings.
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Get weather alerts to your phone by downloading the MetService NZ Weather App from the App Store or Google Play. You can sign up for notifications, including Red Severe Weather Warnings.
Exercise note
If a ‘real’ emergency situation arises during the exercise, Auckland Emergency Management and our partner agencies have protocols in place to either move out of exercise mode or manage concurrent monitoring and emergency response.
All exercise communications will be clearly labelled as Exercise Manaaki and should not be published on public channels, however if the public does see or hear more about the exercise, they should not be alarmed.
