From the mayor's desk: Stratford mayor talks about civil defence and the need to be prepared

Stratford District Mayor Neil Volzke says the region's civil defence works well.

Opinion:

Less than a month ago we were burning up under the scorching sun and it seemed everyone was complaining about the extraordinarily high temperatures that dominated January. This was followed by 10 days of energy-sapping humidity levels that kept many of us awake at night and challenged our motivation to do anything, other than laze around.

Over the weekend just gone, the weather extremes changed again as the remnants of ex-tropical cyclone Dovi hit us on Friday, causing havoc across the country and in parts of Taranaki. While the worst-hit areas in our region were in South and North Taranaki, the Stratford district did suffer some damage as well. Trees falling, some flooding and slips were reported in the eastern parts of the district; while in town we had some manhole covers pop open spilling sewage onto the road, power outages and wind damage to some properties.

As a result, I thought it timely to remind everyone that being prepared for natural disasters and weather events is a responsibility that we should all take on board. Household essentials, food and all the things we need to hunker down for a few days should be readily available so we can support ourselves, should the need suddenly arise. The Taranaki Civil Defence website provides some excellent guidance on being prepared and covers everything you need to know to care for yourself, your family and even for caring for your pets. There are easy to follow suggestions for every situation.

Our regional Civil Defence organisation is a well-oiled machine and has been called upon many times in the past. Over recent years, increasingly significant sums of money have been poured into developing the support services and the response capabilities across the region. By and large the money has come from the region's four councils, which have pooled the money to fund one regional Civil Defence group. That annual budgeted cost of about $1.4 million is apportioned according to the size of each council.

On top of that, each district council has its own in-house Civil Defence capability, which complements the larger regional organisation, the Taranaki Emergency Management Office, commonly known as TEMO. The headquarters or office, located in a purpose-built building in New Plymouth, is fitted out with all the modern equipment necessary to manage and co-ordinate a response to a civil defence emergency.

While TEMO is operated by a small number of permanent staff with specific skill sets to handle every situation, there is still a large reliance on other people who are called upon on an "as needed" basis. Collectively, they form a highly skilled and well-trained group.

From a Civil Defence perspective, what happens when MetService issues a severe weather warning and advises it is heading our way? Last weekend was a good example of how the system works.

Having been advised cyclone Dovi would hit the region over the weekend, early Friday morning TEMO called a Zoom meeting of the Regional Leadership Group. We were advised of the details of the pending weather event, precautions we should be taking, media communications, and that TEMO was being officially activated in a monitoring role.

In anticipation of significant damage being caused, South Taranaki and New Plymouth both activated their local, council-based Civil Defence team to manage their local response. As the weekend progressed and damage was reported, they were able to respond at a local level. Keeping a watchful eye and providing assistance if needed was the TEMO team, which could take control should the scale of the event escalate. Sitting above that again is the national Civil Defence team, which could be called upon to assist if needed with really large-scale or prolonged events.

This tiered system works well. As a region Taranaki is very well served by its Civil Defence professionals and the many hundreds of helpers from a range of organisations who collectively keep us safe. It is reassuring to know that the investment into this area paying dividends, the service is working well.