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Community Resilience Planning in Martinborough

June 14, 2016 June 2016 No Comments

Community planning team, Maree Roy, Pam Colenso, John Hunter, Jackie Buckley, Shane Atkinson, Rick Geisler.

Community planning team, Maree Roy, Pam Colenso, John Hunter, Jackie Buckley, Shane Atkinson, Rick Geisler.

Volunteers within the community recently met for the second time to start working on a plan for the town and surrounding areas, in the event of a major disaster. These meetings have been facilitated by Scott Dray and Darryl McCurdy from the Wellington Regional Emergency Management Office (WREMO) who are actively encouraging communities to be prepared for natural disasters, and in particular a big earthquake that could result in lost access, communications and lifelines such as power and water. These planning sessions incorporate lessons learned from communities affected by disasters in Christchurch and overseas.

At the first meeting the team discussed the essential need for effective coordination and communication at the time of a disaster, having realistic expectations with regard the capabilities of council and emergency services, and the need to be fully aware of the role the community can play in a disaster – hence the need for some pre-disaster planning.

Also, key to an effective response is the need for strong connections and relationships to exist within the community; discussions evolved about groups that currently exist and how further projects might be developed to further develop social capital.
Most are aware that the ‘Civil Defence Centre’ (soon to be potentially renamed Community Emergency Hub) is located at the Lions’ Den in Martinborough, but many are not familiar of the role played by a Civil Defence Centre in the event of an emergency. It is not a welfare centre but rather the first port of call for residents to get information and work together to pool community resources and skills to address the community’s critical needs until outside support arrives. The Centre is manned entirely by the community (WREMO runs volunteer training courses) we desperately need more trained volunteers.

Making a Civil Defence Centre work is really quite simple – it’s about coordination, cooperation and good information management. It does require a willingness to work collaboratively with others and the confidence to ‘give it a go’.
The second of our planning meetings focused on detailing what assets we had in the community to address critical needs such as: water, shelter, food, sanitation, medical assistance, and rescue/checking on people (especially the vulnerable). What resources, skill-sets, relationships and contacts could be utilised. This initial high level scan will be recorded in our Martinborough Civil Defence Centre Operating Guide. Future reviews (which are planned for every 18 – 24 months) will further expand and add detail to this list.

The next and final meeting for this round of the Martinborough Community Response Plan is scheduled for 11 am on Saturday 25 June at the Lions’ Den, 3 Oxford Street, Martinborough. This third planning session will explore ideas or initiatives that the community could lead to build resilience and further strengthen connections and relationships.
We hope to have South Wairarapa District Council representatives in attendance, as well as business leaders from the community, Civil Defence volunteers, representatives from community groups, and anyone else from the community who would like to be involved. Please come and join us.

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