02 Feb 12, 11:57 Update on Civil Defence

Civil defence situation updates

Fri, 02 Jul 2010 09:41:29 +1200

CDEM status definitions

Sat, 14 Mar 2009 20:11:30 +1300

Normal | Alert | Activated | Declaration | State of national emergency

No Current Emergency

No civil defence emergency. This does not mean that a sudden event cannot occur at any time.
Here are some suggestions on how you should be ready

Weather Warning

When the Metservice issues a new warning the status will change to 'Weather Warning' when the event actually starts the Civil Defence status will change to 'Alert or Activated' depending on the events severity

Alert

We have been alerted to a possible situation by:

Metservice and the event has started, or
Institute of Geological and Nuclear Sciences, or
Ministry of Civil Defence and Emergency Management, or
Other warning systems such as telemetry / flood warning

Civil Defence is in a monitoring and information gathering mode.

Activated

A hazard or event of significance is imminent or is occurring and has impacted or may impact on the CDEM Group Area and requires the activation of the Group Emergency Operations Centre (GEOC).

Declaration

A state of local emergency declared under section 68 or section 69 of the Civil Defence Emergency Management Act 2002. An emergency means a situation that:

is the result of any happening, whether natural or otherwise, including, without limitation, any explosion, earthquake, eruption, tsunami, land movement, flood, storm, tornado, cyclone, serious fire, leakage or spillage of any dangerous gas or substance, technological failure, infestation, plague, epidemic, failure of or disruption to an emergency service or a lifeline utility, or actual or imminent attack or warlike act; and
causes or may cause loss of life or injury or illness or distress or in any way endangers the safety of the public or property in New Zealand or any part of New Zealand; and
cannot be dealt with by emergency services, or otherwise requires a significant and co-ordinated response under the Act.

State of national emergency

Declared under Section 66 of the Civil Defence Emergency Management Act 2002.

Hazards

Fri, 23 Jul 2010 14:28:57 +1200

Hazards in our region

General hazard information

The Civil Defence Emergency Management Group is required to consider any and all natural and man-made hazards that may lead to a declaration of a state of local emergency in the Gisborne district.

Biosecurity

New organisms arriving in Tairawhiti may impact on the economic, environmental, socio–cultural and human health values.

New pests that damage horticultural production or affect animal health can have direct effects on production and severely impact export flows. There is a potential for this to occur under the climate change scenario.

MAF Biosecurity (MAFBNZ) leads and coordinates responses to new organisms, except if they are in humans when MoH will lead.

Drought

The present district climate trends towards a seasonal drought rather than a long-term condition that will cause severe problems.

The current threat of drought in the Gisborne district is more one of inconvenience than of widespread disruption. There is an expectation that dry years may be more frequent in future, but the decline in pasture production on the East Coast may be less than for other eastern regions due to more rain forecast during the summer months.

The Ecoclimate team predicted that pasture production on the East Coast north of Napier would increase over summer.

In fact the changing distribution of rainfall with a reduction of 10% in winter and spring and an increase in summer/autumn rainfall may enable more hay and summer feed crops to be grown for use over autumn and winter.

The chance of a drought in any one year is currently 5% but this is expected to rise to 10% by 2030.

Earthquake

The Gisborne district sits close to the boundaries of 2 crustal plates. It runs parallel to the coast about 60-90kms offshore.

The Pacific Plate is subducting beneath the Australian Plate which leaves the district susceptible to large earthquakes, although how large is unknown. The subsequent movement of the plates causes uplift of the East Cape, this activity has caused many faults to develop both offshore and onshore.

Identification of these faults has come from research but many are still to be found. It is possible that many will only ever be found when next they rupture as there is no visible evidence to suggest that they exist. These are commonly called blind faults.

Onshore and offshore earthquakes have the potential to cause tsunami.

An MM8 event occurring at certain times of the day will potentially cause large numbers of casualties and will severely test the ability of responders to cope. This type of event is probably at the limit of what the organisation can plan for. Mitigation through building codes will help limit the number of casualties.

Liquefaction is a significant effect of earthquakes with much of the city area and Poverty Bay Flats being susceptible. During large earthquake certain soil types allow the ground water to mix with it and the surface looses its strength allowing heavy structures to topple and roads become deformed.

Return period for earthquakes across the Gisborne district

Annual Probability (%)

MM6 40% - 12%
MM7 8% – 2.4%
MM8 1.7% – 0.6%
MM9 0.5% – 0.2%
MM10 0.14% - 0.04%

There have been 5 MM7 and 7 MM8 in the last 90 years. A MM9 did affect the top of the East Cape in 1914.

A significant emergency event would be an MM8 occurring in the city during the day, during school hours and with a busy CBD area – or an event greater than MM8.

The Modified Mercalli Scale (MM) is the measurement of the felt intensity at a specific place where as the richter measurement is the amount of energy released at the epicentre.

Erosion

The Gisborne district is geologically unstable and apart from earthquake impacts, weather events and time can cause landslip and erosion. Several populated areas are at risk and they include Te Puia Springs, Tokomaru Bay, Tuahine Point, Wainui Beach, Makorori Headland, Kaiti Hill and Hospital Hill. There will also be widespread surface slipping and deep seated movement on hill country destroying productive land and adding sediment to river catchments. This in turn will contribute towards future flooding events. In rural areas there are some buildings close to steep hill country which may be at risk.

It is not practical to have an annual probability for an event that could result in a significant emergency response for a landslip event. The chances of one happening though are increasing with more development being allowed on slopes around the city.

Flooding

The East Cape has a history of “hits” from decaying tropical cyclones causing widespread flooding and disruption. There are also other events that are more localised and result from a weather system dumping a large volume of water in a small area. A recent study showed that there is a trend of less of these events, but when they occur more rain falls.

Most areas north of Ruatoria have a higher average rainfall than the south of the district and can cope with high rainfall events. The Waikura Valley for example can get 200mms in a 24 hour period without any adverse effects.

The populated areas likely to be worst affected in a large event are the Poverty Bay Flats, Te Karaka and the area just north of Tolaga Bay. More intense localised events such as the 1985 Ngatapa flood and the 1977 Glenroy flood also caused substantial damage.

Most of the Poverty Bay Flats, during inundation, is not subject to fast flowing water but huge areas are subject to ponding, which after the water recedes, will leave thick layers of silt damaging pasture and fences.

In the city a number of riverbank properties are at risk. Extensive flooding depends upon the tides, potential overflow from the Waipaoa River, storm surges and the flood-peak times of the Taruheru and Waimata Rivers.

The stop-banks at Te Karaka have been raised to give protection up to an event of 0.5% excedance, but this does not mitigate the need to evacuate in a significant event as they get isolated early and forecasts can be wrong.

Upgrading of the Waipaoa River Flood Protection Scheme was due by 2012 but is still being consulted on via the 10 Year Plan process.

The July 2008 events are also a warning to watch multiple events that occur within days of each other.

A major rainfall event is expected somewhere in the district every 10-15 years. The return period for an event requiring a declaration is likely to be less than 20 years.

The Cyclone Bola flood in the Waipaoa River has a 1.4% annual probability (although this is potentially increasing with aggradation of the riverbed).

Human pandemic

There is a significant difference between normal influenza and a pandemic. As a normal occurrence, hundreds can die around the world in any one year through flu pandemic. A pandemic is more significant mainly because it is a new strain of virus, so less people will have immunity. Consequently most people could get sick if they come into contact with the virus. With the mobility of today’s population the virus can be around the world before an outbreak becomes evident at its source.

A pandemic influenza epidemic is probably the event that will cause the most significant community disruption. This scenario is potentially the most disruptive emergency scenario the Group could face, not only because of the impacts locally, but because of the potential for the epidemic to have national and international impacts leaving only a local response with no support. One factor in the Groups favour is the relevant isolation and the potential to stop the disease entering the district. But there is also the potential for an event to spread globally before any response is possible as witnessed in the 2009 Swine Flu pandemic.

Other viral, bacterial or other influenza pandemics may trigger emergency response.

Information systems failure

The primary reason for an Information Technology (IT) failure is power loss. This can affect phones, computers, Eftpost, hubs, wireless links and modems. Failures can also occur due to hackers, viruses, hardware failure and operating system failures. Most IT failures are isolated to individual organisations but can be widespread under some scenarios.

The most probable scenarios for a major IT failure that could cause widespread disruption is a loss of telecommunications to a significant number of emergency responders, utility providers or businesses at the same time, or a widespread power outage of more than 2-3 days duration.

People are becoming more and more reliant on technology, so when it’s not there, it doesn’t take long for disruption to start causing problems.

Tsunami

The entire Gisborne district coastline is at risk from a tsunami originating from a distant or local source. The only real threat from a distant event is the west coast of South America – Chile or Peru. The only other real threat is from a local event generated within 60-90 km off the coast. Since 1832 there have been 25 “hits” on the East Coast. Eleven of these have been from local events and 14 from distant events. The highest known wave-heights from local events were up to 10 metres and distant event were up to 1-2ms.

None of these events have caused serious inundation but that does not rule-out a life threatening event in the future.

The most common triggers for tsunami are large undersea earthquakes, slow earthquakes, volcanic events, undersea landslides, mud volcanoes and certain weather related conditions.

For the purpose of developing evacuation plans, worst case credible events a (maximum run-up at high-tide) large event is taken as 10 metres on the coast and 6 metres in Poverty Bay.

It is critical that everyone understand the difference in management requirements for distant and local events. A locally generated event has the potential to cause a significant number of casualties with the only warning being an earthquake. Whereas a distant event will have between 11-14 hours warning and give authorities time to evacuate those in the potential risk areas.

The available data indicates there is a 5% annual probability of a hit by a wave of unknown height, but it is unlikely to be more than a few centimetres. There is a 0.125% chance of a 6 metre event in Poverty Bay but the worst case impacts occur at high-tide so the chance of significant inundation is further reduced. The annual probability of a 10 metre event is unknown on the coast but it falls within the range of 1.4% - 0.02%.

Volcanic activity

Ash fallout has the potential to be the most disruptive disaster in the district. A 700-year Okataina event could erupt ash intermittently over a 3 year period. Past ash falls have ranged from millimetres to half a metre. Wind direction and speed could bring ash to this district in less than 2 hours.

Source	Thickness (mm)	Frequency (annual probably %)
Okataina	1-150	0.14% - 0.02%
Okataina	1-1500	0.14% - 0.33%
White Island	1-10	0.1% - 0.02%
Ruapehu	1-5	1% - 0.2%
Taupo	1-5	0.77% - 0.63%
Taupo	1-50	0.77% - 0.63%
Taupo	1-600	0.4% - 0.02%
Taupo	100-4000	0.02% - 0.01%
Egmont	1-2	0.77% - 0.63%

There has not been a significant event from Okataina for approx 700-years or an event from Taupo for around 1850 years. The last volcanic event to affect the Gisborne district was in 1995 when 1-2mm of ash fell from Ruapehu. There is a 0.5% chance in any one year of an event of 15-30 millimetres occurring.

Volcanic activity outside of the district that does not result in ash-fall within it, especially in the Auckland field, can still have a significant affect on the district through economic disruption and hinder distribution of essential resources.

Civil Defence plans and reports

Sun, 29 Mar 2009 19:46:15 +1300

Civil Defence Emergency Management Group Plan

This plan was approved in December 2009 and has a life of 5 years. It was prepared and produced by council and key partners, in consultation with the public, and in accordance with the requirements of the Civil Defence Emergency Management (CDEM) Act 2002, National Strategy and guidelines issued on CDEM planning.

Title Page and Contents 192kb
Introduction 266kb
Risk Profile 352kb
Reduction 165kb
Readiness 376kb
Response 272kb
Recovery 260kb
Monitoring and Evaluation 132kb
Management and Governance 243kb
Glossary and Abbreviations 177kb
Annexes 'A' to 'K' 564kb

Flood plans

Te Karaka

It is now some years since Cyclone Bola required the evacuation of the Te Karaka township. It is very easy for those who experienced it to forget this occurrence or for those who have come to live in Te Karaka since then to realise that it will be necessary again in the future. Te Karaka Flood Plan - bookmarked

Tolaga Bay

The purpose of this plan is to outline the procedures that will be used in the case of a flood event that necessitates the evacuation of the 3 areas collectively known as Tolaga Bay. Tolaga Bay Flood Plan - bookmarked

Poverty Bay Flats

The purpose of this plan is to outline the procedures that will be used in the case of a flood event that necessitates evacuations of areas on the Poverty Bay Flats. Poverty Bay Flats Flood Plan - bookmarked

Hazard warning

In the city area, the Gisborne City Fire Brigade siren is not part of the civil defence warning system.

Hazard Warning Systems Report

Pandemic plan

The purpose of this plan is to address the community and Civil Defence Emergency Management Group (CDEM) response in the Gisborne district to an avian influenza threat or outbreak, or other notified disease that could cause a pandemic.

Pandemic plan

Recovery plan

Recovery is defined as the coordinated efforts and process to effect the immediate, medium and long-term holistic regeneration of a community following a disaster.

Recovery Plan - bookmarked

Tsunami plan

The purpose of this plan is to provide procedures to be followed in the event that the Gisborne district has warning of a distantly generated to keep communities safe or for a timely response to a locally generated Tsunami.

Tsunami Plan - bookmarked

Tsunami Evacuation Maps

Tsunami Advice

Volcanic contingency plan

The purpose of this plan is to identify steps that the Emergency Management team will use to manage the lead up to and eruptive stages of a volcanic event. The recovery phase will be managed with procedures contained in the Group Recovery Plan, except for the cleanup issue which will have to be planned at the time.

Volcanic Contingency Plan - bookmarked

Welfare plan

A Welfare Group has been established within the District EOC to meet the obligations the Gisborne CDEM Group has in relation to any person, persons or family unit removed from or isolated in, their normal place of residence anywhere within the Gisborne District, because of an event that has resulted in an emergency.

Welfare Plan - bookmarked

Be prepared

Sun, 22 Mar 2009 19:07:18 +1300

Be prepared to cope on your own for up to 3 days or more

Have an emergency household plan
Download a household emergency plan checklist

Survival plan checklist - you need:

Enough food in your home to last 3 days.
To know where to get water, if your normal supply is unavailable. Store some water if a warning is issued, fill containers immediately after a large earthquake.
Alternative lighting. A torch with spare batteries, gas lantern or light sticks. Tip - store some batteries sealed in a bag in the fridge. Don't use candles - they're not safe.
A battery operated radio and spare batteries. Don't forget your car radio as a last resort.
A first aid kit and manual. Make sure you have your essential medication.
Alternative heating, blankets, survival blankets or warm waterproof clothing.
Alternative cooking methods, barbecue or gas cooker.
Important family documents stored where you can get them easily during an emergency.
A first aid kit and fire extinguisher in your car.
A workplace survival plan.

During an emergency you need to listen to the radio for instructions

We will broadcast over these stations during an emergency:

1314 AM Radio NZ
101.3 FM Radio NZ
945 kHz AM - Talkback ZB
585 kHz AM - Radio Ngati Porou
90.9 FM - ZGFM
98.1 FM - Radio Ngati Porou
98.9 FM - More FM
94.8 FM - Radio Live
91.7 FM - Turanga FM
88.5 FM - Uawa

Only use the phone in emergencies. Also:

Look out for your neighbours and elderly folk.
Know how to turn off your power, water and gas.
Look at the last yellow page in the centre of your phone book for your community emergency centre.
Know what the threats are - and what they will do to you.
Don't go sightseeing.
Plan how you will survive without power, phone, food, water and the emergency services.
Know what you will take if you have to evacuate.

Community civil defence staff

Tue, 21 Apr 2009 16:31:32 +1200

If you wish to volunteer to join a community group contact us

Click on the link to find the civil defence staff in your community -

Civil defence emergency management

Sun, 22 Mar 2009 21:08:23 +1300

Civil Defence Emergency Management (CDEM) is the responsibility of everyone. It should be part of our everyday life. We need to know the hazards that affect us, what their effects are, how we will survive their impacts and how we will fix the results of those impacts - commonly known as the 4Rs.

Reduction

♦ learning about the hazards and reducing the risks

Readiness

♦ commonsense procedures to prepare for an event

Response

♦ looking after ourselves and people in distress during an event

Recovery

♦ fixing what didn't survive, hopefully better than it was before

Rural fire

Thu, 17 Dec 2009 12:24:25 +1300

Flood photos 30 June 2009

Tue, 30 Jun 2009 20:43:52 +1200

Photos taken from around the district on Monday 29 and Tuesday 30 June 2009. Rain started falling quite heavily from Sunday afternoon and by 9am Wednesday morning a huge amount of rain had been dumped on the district.

The city received 169mm of rain, Matawai 162mm, Tokomaru Bay 345mm, Te Puia Springs 423mm, Whangara 364mm and Ruatoria 340mm.

On Tuesday night the Hikuwai River peaked at 11.78 metres, Waipaoa River reached 6.95 metres, Waiapu 5.25m and Waimata at Goodwins 7.25 metres. Fortunately the rain eased before the rivers reached critical levels. By 9am on Wednesday morning the Hikuwau was 8.2m, Waipaoa 5.92m, Waiapu 4.46m and Waimata 5.6m and they kept receding.

Earthquake 20 December 2007

Thu, 21 Jan 2010 14:31:40 +1300

On Thursday 20 December 2007 at 8.55pm Gisborne was rocked by a 6.8 magnitude earthquake lasting 32 seconds. The city centre was open for late night shopping - fortunately most people had gone home.

After an assessment of the damage, a state of emergency was declared at 1am on the CBD area. After inspecting all buildings in the CBD and suspect areas made safe, the state of emergency was lifted at 5.15pm on Saturday 22 December. The CBD was trading as normal by Christmas eve.

The following presentations provide an overview of the recovery

The December 2007 Gisborne Earthquake - post disaster responsibilities Ian Petty - GDC
Gisborne Earthquake - impacts on buildings and lifelines Noel Evans and John Wells - Opus
Ground Effects of the Gisborne Earthquake Georg Winkler - Land Development & Exploration Ltd

The devastation created in that 32 seconds was enormous, but thankfully there were no fatalities and no fires.

Over $50m in claims were received by EQC - $29m damage claims to residential properties and $27m commercial claims. 2928 for content, 1582 chimney and 1799 interior damage claims.

Photo gallery

Earthquake research

Mon, 21 Jun 2010 13:41:46 +1200

A magnitude 6.8 earthquake struck Gisborne at 8.55pm on 20 December 2007. Minor damage was widespread but in some locations, especially the CBD, a number of buildings were extensively damaged.

Whilst the Gisborne earthquake was only a moderate event overall, it is the first earthquake in many years that affected a population centre as large as a provincial city. The response and recovery to this event, in particular addressing the areas of heavy damage, has provided the opportunity for learning to improve the management of future natural hazards. Several research organisations have conducted studies into the recovery experiences of the Gisborne community following the earthquake.

On 7 December 2009, 2 years on from the earthquake, some 140 government representatives, insurers, local authority staff, researchers, engineers and others from throughout New Zealand and Australia attended a half-day workshop called Shaken Up: Recovery Following the Gisborne Earthquake - at which the findings of this research were presented. The workshop was organised by researchers at Opus International Consultants’ Central Laboratories in Lower Hutt as part of a research programme entitled Social and Economic Recovery from Natural Disasters through Community Resilience (2004-2010), funded by the New Zealand Foundation for Research, Science and Technology (FRST).

Proceedings of 'Shaken Up'

Foreword and contents (217kb 2 pages)
Vince Dravitzki, Opus Central Laboratories

Introduction: Recovery as an holistic concept (292kb 3 pages)
Alan Walker, MCDEM

The earthquake's impacts on buildings and infrastructure (6.54MB 11 pages)
Noel Evans, Opus Napier

How and why earthquakes induce people to travel about (2.72MB 14 pages)
Dr Darren Walton, Opus Central Laboratories

The community's experience of recovery : (832kb 9 pages)
Preliminary findings from the 2007 earthquake household damage and preparedness survey
Wendy Saunders and Julia Becker, GNS Science

Business recovery and the rebuilding of commercial property (934kb 22 pages)
Dr Felicity Powell and Dr Abigail Harding, Opus Central Laboratories

Coordination of state and private funding of repairs (283kb 6 pages)
John Lucas, Insurance Council of New Zealand

Strong similarities between two urban earthquakes: (3.48MB 7 pages)
Gisborne 2007 and Newcastle 1989
Dave Brunsdon, Resilient Organisations

Panel discussion (288kb 8 pages)
Joined by Peter Higgs, Gisborne District Council

Conference announcement (383kb 2 pages)
Paul Finlay, Waitakere Consulting Engineers

Covers (1.82MB 4 pages)

Marine Oil Spill contingency plan (MOS)

Thu, 30 Jun 2011 13:26:11 +1200

Urban Search & Rescue

Thu, 21 Apr 2011 15:20:46 +1200