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Improving civil defence capabilities

Master Planning

Cutting our own track

One of Resilient Westport ‘s projects is to build on emergency management arrangements, which will, among other things, enhance evacuation procedures.

Of the $22.9m Resilient Westport funding, $500,000 is being applied to this work, which takes place over the next 18 to 24 months.

What does civil defence emergency management look like in Westport already?

We already have Civil Defence in Buller that is managed through West Coast Emergency Management Group (WCEM).

All four councils on the West Coast and iwi, make up the WCEM Group.

·        West Coast Regional Council

·        Buller District Council

·        Grey District Council

·        Westland District Council

·        Te Rūnanga o Makaawhio

·        Te Rūnanga of Ngāti Waewae.

The aim of the WCEM is to coordinate emergency management activities, mainly focussed on readiness and response.

As we saw in the flood events of 2021 and 2022 (and many other occasions), in an emergency WCEM sets up an Emergency Operations Centre (EOC) to oversee the coordination of agencies and communities involved in a response.

The operational direction of WCEM is provided by the four councils, Fire Emergency NZ, Police, Health NZ, Medical Officer of Health, St John, the Group Controller, Department of Conservation, Makaawhio and Ngāti Waewae.  These agencies meet on a quarterly basis and make up the ‘Coordinating Executive Group’ (CEG).

How is Resilient Westport adding to the mix?

A Resilient Westport Emergency Management Project Lead - Ilana Batchelor - has been recruited to work with West Coast Emergency Management, under direction of the WCEM Manager, Claire Brown.

They’re focussing on ways to enhance planning arrangements. This includes:

  • better evacuation procedures,

  • upgraded digital systems for data sharing using GIS platforms,

  • coordinated planning among critical infrastructure agencies and emergency services

  • and community engagement.

A key element of this is to look at Westport’s evacuation procedures during the construction of the floodwalls and stopbanks that form part of the flood mitigation work.

The team is working with the flood project engineers to establish the timing and nature of the various planned phases of flood protection work to then plan and communicate tailored evacuation procedures as required. This includes identifying who might be affected at a given time, when to prepare to evacuate and where people should go in an emergency.

Once the walls are in place evacuation procedures will continue to be assessed for all of Westport.

Key to timely and effective evacuation planning is having good information about the nature of the hazards that might impact on Westport – as much in advance as possible. Resilient Westport’s work deploying the ocean wave buoy off Westport is part of improving the information available for flood and weather modelling.

In addition, a water level recorder was installed on the Orowaiti Bridge recently and another is planned for the Buller Bridge at SH76, with a final site to be installed in the Buller River at White Cliffs.