BEVS

C'mon.
It is not the rain is it. It is the lack of timely action by the one in ultimate charge to call y'know , action.
It isn't an episode from Black Adder who had more integrity.


Yes. Absolutely yes. And more

LittleGreyCat

Elton John concert was probably all to do with insurance.
Authorities declare an emergency and the organisers are covered.
They just make a judgement call and they could be liable for the losses.
Brinkmanship.

BEVS

Yes.

LegalEagleTX

You make it sound like emergency services were sitting on their hands waiting for Wayne Brown to give them an order. Emergency services perform amazing feats in-spite of politicians, not because of them. It would have been all hands on deck before a state of emergency was called. Sometimes politicians are best to stay well out of their way.

Bo-Jangles

Meanwhile, the rain just keeps on coming at biblical levels

Justcol

How would it have altered things
Rain would still be falling
Streets, houses and businesses would still be flooding.
slips would still be happening.
kayakers would still be getting sucked into Storm drains
Roads were already being closed
Rescues were already happening
Police, fire services and teams with irb's were already out.

Maybe the Elton John fans might have got home a bit earlier but I can't see what else would have changed apart from a lot people in the eoc ringing a lot of other people for updates

BEVS

No. That is not what I said at all.

I wrote this " The general emergency response to an event is led by first response units at the outset. The point it tips to state of emergency ( in NZ) is when all units are at saturation point ( pun not intended)"


More hands on deck , in simple terms . Cohesion and Comms.

Is there a lack of understanding over what NEMA is and does and also the role of Civil Defence maybe. What calling a State of Emergency allows. How an EOC performs . Given the climate in general is and has altered for the worst and these 'once on 100 year' events are going to become more the norm , maybe a heavy duty publicity campaign is needed to up the NEMA/CD profiles and have the nation understand better what happens and whats needed to afford the public on the sharp end the information and assistance they need in times of strife. The Nelson Mayor was sterling in this during August 2022.

Note that there is currently a national accreditation and audit happening re civil defence so all teams , paid and volunteer alike, operate from one page . Through that they will all be able to deploy out of their areas. It has been mooted that this need apply to Mayors of local authorities as well as a part of their induction into their public funded role. Looking at the past few days for Auckland I'd say that needs to become a definite , although the Nelson mayor was sterling during the August 2022 atmospheric river event here. Boots on ground. Informed . Fronting.

BEVS

Yes. It is a bad'un. I hope it abates soon and I also hope that you and yours, plus anyone up there in the midst of this is holding up best you can be with little to no damage.

MrBEVS and the SI teams here are still on a stand by . I believe that other NI teams are possibly already deployed.

To be honest, our own region still hasn't recovered from August. That's housing , roading , infrastructure. It takes a fair old while. Westport on the West Coat remains munted really.

Perhaps there needs be a mention of the first and second responders + co-ordinators and personnel management . Those teams work in shifts. They will do double shifts or round the clock BUT their safety needs to be addressed also. Therefore there needs to be extra responders & co-ordinators available to relieve the load. NEMA does that.

Pollyana

Having worked in Emergency Ops Centres for the last 19 years, I can only agree with you. The thing we dread is politicians turning up and trying to tell us how to do our job. They need to keep their distance and let those trained in the field get on with their work unhindered.

BEVS

Something seems to have become a little muddled.

The EOC was already up and running . The first & second responders were already doing their work per the calls and intel. That would be both the retained and the volunteer teams. The agencies would have been liaising & pushing out info etc. The issue here is that the Mayor who is a front man was not fronting. Neither was he pro-active. What he has been, subsequently ,is critical of said EOC and the agencies. So in that respect I suppose you could say this Mayor , having done nothing whilst people suffered, is now a liability. His deputy appears a little more able.

Justcol

Sorry, still not seeing how calling it earlier would have changed one single thing apart from making a few people in the EOC feel better because they were involved.
Floods would still have happened and I doubt a single life would have been saved. One death was a fool kayaking in the flood waters and another was an clown roaming around filming himself trying to look like a hero for his social media. I have no sympathy for people who put others at risk due to their stupidity.

Pollyana

Floods really seem to bring out the stupid side of many people. Every time we have a bout of flooding in Queensland there are multiple instances of people driving into floodwaters and then getting stuck, requiring fire service rescue teams to get their boats out and rescue the idiots - many of whom turn out to be locals who should know better. We have cases where people even move the "Road Closed" signs so that they can drive on flooded roads, with predictable results. We get parents who let their kids play in floodwater, people who take kayaks into swollen rivers, people who think that if the road is closed to traffic cos of flooding then its still OK to walk into the water. The stupidity of people is amazing at times.

Justcol

The guys doing his best.

Bo-Jangles

He has finally conceded that it was not good enough.

BEVS

With & as the State Of Emergency is still in place & because nasty , nasty cyclone Gabrielle bearing down on the NI ( and perhaps parts of upper SI) NEMA has called upon out of region Civil Defence to volunteer & deploy to work where needed. Consequently MrBEVS is on standby to fly out sometime in the next couple of days. It's a fly out - 5 days - fly back rotation schedule.

Wishing everyone in its path the best .