The Star: March 21, 2019
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<strong>The</strong> <strong>Star</strong> Thursday <strong>March</strong> <strong>21</strong> <strong>2019</strong><br />
24<br />
NEWS<br />
news online at www.star.kiwi<br />
Clear safety message from expo<br />
<strong>The</strong> Save Our Suburbs<br />
Expo brought<br />
residents in the<br />
east together with<br />
emergency services<br />
and community<br />
groups for discussions<br />
on how they could<br />
work together to keep<br />
the community safe.<br />
Matt Slaughter reports<br />
on the key advice<br />
given<br />
EMERGENCY services and<br />
community groups in the east<br />
say residents<br />
need to work<br />
together to keep<br />
safe.<br />
This was<br />
the message<br />
that came out<br />
of the Save<br />
Darlene<br />
Herd<br />
Our Suburbs<br />
Community<br />
Safety Expo<br />
held at the<br />
former central New Brighton<br />
School site.<br />
Emergency services, Civil Defence,<br />
neighbourhood support,<br />
mental health professionals,<br />
insurance, security, technology<br />
experts, city council and Age<br />
Concern representatives all came<br />
together.<br />
About 120 people, mostly from<br />
the eastern suburbs, attended the<br />
event which was organised by<br />
North New Brighton residents<br />
Darlene and Jeremy Herd and<br />
South New Brighton resident<br />
Soozie Bragg.<br />
Houses and roading in the east<br />
suffered major damage in the<br />
2010 and 2011 earthquakes and<br />
residents clogged roads when a<br />
tsunami warning forced them to<br />
evacuate after the 2016 Kaikoura<br />
earthquake.<br />
Mrs Herd said her home had<br />
been burgled on Boxing Day,<br />
which had inspired her to do<br />
something to make the east safer.<br />
She said the collective message<br />
delivered by all of the organisations<br />
was the importance of residents<br />
knowing their neighbours<br />
and the tools available to keep<br />
themselves and others safe from<br />
crime and natural threats out of<br />
their control.<br />
“After you get burgled or have<br />
a tragedy, it forces you to think<br />
about these things,” she said.<br />
“<strong>The</strong> core message was to take<br />
some personal responsibility for<br />
your own safety and see what<br />
you can do as a person and also<br />
a member of the community to<br />
make some changes.”<br />
Constable Nathan Wilson<br />
said the first piece of advice<br />
was how people could protect<br />
themselves against crime before<br />
it occurred.<br />
“We were targeting on<br />
burglaries and ensuring<br />
everything’s all locked and<br />
secure all of the time. It’s even<br />
getting to the point where during<br />
the day if you’re going out to<br />
the back of your property to do<br />
some gardening, make sure that<br />
your front door is all locked.<br />
With alarms, if you’ve got them,<br />
make sure they’re being used. A<br />
big one is getting to know your<br />
neighbours . . . if you’re going<br />
away, touch base with your<br />
neighbours and let them know.”<br />
Constable Wilson said the<br />
best ways to help police when<br />
crime did occur was the next big<br />
topic of conversation. If people<br />
felt they were not in immediate<br />
danger, it was still important to<br />
report any suspicious behaviour,<br />
he said.<br />
“When people don’t report<br />
things, we don’t know<br />
about it and we can’t get<br />
out there to try and prevent<br />
it from happening.”<br />
City council head<br />
of Civil Defence and<br />
emergency management<br />
Rob Orchard said<br />
information was given on<br />
how people could prepare<br />
themselves for disasters,<br />
particularly tsunamis, which had<br />
posed a risk to the beach suburbs<br />
in the east in the past.<br />
“On display were the current<br />
tsunami evacuation zones . . .<br />
and where they could find the<br />
tsunami evacuation zones.”<br />
Bruce Irvine<br />
“Emergencies can be anything<br />
from not being able to get home,<br />
to the impacts of natural hazards<br />
like earthquakes, storms, or<br />
tsunamis. It’s really important<br />
that we get prepared for such<br />
disruptions.”<br />
Fire and Emergency New<br />
Zealand senior fire<br />
risk manager Bruce<br />
Irvine said fire posed an<br />
extreme risk along the<br />
beach front.<br />
“Our topic of discussion<br />
was related to<br />
occupied properties and<br />
having an escape plan<br />
with an identified meeting<br />
place for when your smoke<br />
alarm activates.”<br />
Ensuring the safety of the<br />
high number of vacant and<br />
insecure houses in the east<br />
was also emphasised, Mr Irvine<br />
said.<br />
“A request has gone out to<br />
SAFE: <strong>The</strong> importance<br />
of residents in the<br />
east knowing their<br />
neighbours, reporting<br />
crime and preparing<br />
themselves for natural<br />
disasters, like the<br />
evacuations after the<br />
Kaikoura earthquake<br />
in 2016, was the<br />
key advice given by<br />
emergency services<br />
and community<br />
groups during the<br />
Save Our Suburbs<br />
Expo.<br />
property owners to secure their<br />
asset with improved fencing,<br />
other security measures<br />
including boarding of broken<br />
windows, along with managing<br />
the vegetation on the properties<br />
better to reduce the potential fire<br />
risk.”<br />
Mrs Herd said the Save Our<br />
Suburbs Expo was just one of the<br />
many steps needed to make the<br />
east. She said she was already<br />
in conversations about the<br />
possibility of the expo becoming<br />
an annual event.<br />
In February, the Ministry of<br />
Civil Defence and Emergency<br />
Management community<br />
resilience co-ordinators<br />
participated in the South<br />
Brighton preparedness day.<br />
<strong>The</strong>y talked to residents about<br />
preparedness, in particular<br />
about tsunamis and emergency<br />
mobility alerts.<br />
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