Resilience Focus for HB Civil Defence Group Plan

A draft plan for preparing and coping with natural hazards and emergencies in the region has been released for public comment by Hawke’s Bay Civil Defence Emergency Management Group.

Every five years the CDEM Group is required to provide a plan proposing the civil defence work and community action that will be taken to prepare, respond and recover from adverse events and disasters, such as earthquakes, floods and tsunami.

Resilience is a major theme in the draft plan, which outlines plans to strengthen the communities’ resilience to adverse events and disasters.

“Resilience is our ability to bounce back, and much of that depends on the community’s willingness to be well-prepared. Individuals and communities may have good ideas how we can help them to do that better and we’d like to hear from them,” says HBCDEM Group Controller Ian Macdonald.

To make it easier for people to make comments, a form is included in the HBRC magazine ‘Our Place’ which is being distributed to all homes in Hawke’s Bay this week.

“The Plan has been presented in a pretty straightforward way and talks about the risks we face, how we can reduce the risk, be ready, respond and recover from an emergency. It outlines the activities we plan to undertake so we can do this effectively.”

One element included in the draft plan is better training and coordination of volunteers, and how to provide for spontaneous volunteers during an emergency, a new factor that has arisen after the huge response to volunteering following the Christchurch earthquakes.

Public submissions close on 13 December. A copy of the complete draft plan and submission form is on www.hbemergency.govt.nz.

In Hawke’s Bay, civil defence and emergency management is delivered to the community through a Group structure. Every council is required to be a member of the Group which consists of the Hawke’s Bay Regional, Wairoa District, Hastings District, Napier City, and Central Hawke’s Bay District Councils. The HBCDEM Group has collective responsibility for the delivery of emergency management and planning within Hawke’s Bay. There are 16 CDEM Groups across New Zealand.

ENDS

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