North Canterbury News: October 28, 2021

NEWS
North Canterbury News, October 28, 2021
Rewriting disaster management in Waimak
5
By DAVID HILL
Multiple natural disasters in recent
yearsmay cause arethinkofhow the
WaimakaririDistrict Council
managesdisasterrecovery.
Afterleading the council’s May 31
floodrecovery efforts,and responding
to Covid­19 lockdownsand storm
events, recovery managerSimon Hart
has proposed the council rewrite its
recovery plan,whichwas written in
2002.
The review would also consider
lessonsfrom the district’s recovery
from the 2010 and 2011earthquakes,
when strategy and engagement
manager Simon Markham was
recovery manager.
‘‘Theplan we have is fundamentally
OK, it covers all the normal aspects of
recovery and it was referred to
initially afterthe earthquakesand
afterthe floodevent.
‘‘It refers to CivilDefence recovery
options and it takes you through how
to set up variousstructures.
‘‘Butwehavelearned alot and
gathered amountain of material in
recovery documentsover the last 10
years.’’
The earthquakeexperience
provided lessonsonscaleand
duration, which proved to be greater
than anticipated, and gave the council
the opportunity to thinkabout ‘‘how
recovery happens’’.
The Covid­19 experience, on top of
the earthquake recovery, has raised
the importance of considering how
people areimpacted, what agencies
are likely to be involved and ‘‘how do
we look aftersocialwellbeing?’’, Mr
Hart says.
‘‘We stillhave adepthofknowledge
with Simon Markhamand other senior
managers who worked through the
earthquakerecovery, so while that
knowledge is still herewewant to
capture those learnings.
‘‘If Simon Markham and Iaren’t
aroundwhen the nextbig event
happens, we want to leave something
for the next recoverymanager so
they’re not having to trawlthrough
mountains of documents to findwhat
they need.
‘‘SimonMarkham has created
documents which havebeen
implemented aroundthe worldfrom
the experience of the earthquake
recovery in Kaiapoi, so we willlook to
includethat in the recoveryplan,
rather thanjust having aset of
documents.’’
The reviewwouldalso consider the
National Emergency Management
Agency’s ‘‘director’sguidelines’’,
which incorporate government
legislation.
Mr Hartsays the important thing for
arecoverymanager to rememberis
‘‘that the nature of recovery is
continually evolving’’.
‘‘What you write up in the firstweek
as your priorities are likelytobe
significantly different by weeks four
and five.
‘‘What wassignificantinweek one
may be resolved very quickly, but then
there’sthings like wellbeing,
underground infrastructure and rural
lifestyleblocks (as in the flood), which
may not be immediateemergency
situations, but become more
important as the recoveryprogresses.
‘‘Your underlying arrangements and
the actualtasks will be continually
evolving, so you needtohave a
recovery plan which is agile.’’
Under the recoverymanager, the
counciltypically callsonother
‘‘pillars of recovery’’ or expertise as
needed,such as economic,community
Simon Hart
and social, rural sector, infrastructure
and natural environmentsrecovery.
For economic recovery expertise,
Enterprise North Canterbury is called
upon,whilethe council’s community
team leads communityand social
recovery,with the Ministry of Social
Development also abletobecalled
upon.
Future recoverymanagers may need
to manage simultaneous events,Mr
Hart says.
‘‘If you think aboutthe floodevent in
May, then therewas afloodinBuller,
the windevent in June andacouple of
Simon Markham
months later we wereinlockdown and
there were other events regionally
and nationally.
‘‘It’ssomething we need to consider
through the recoveryplan that it’s
likelythat the next big event may not
be the only event in town or the biggest
event in town, and we may be working
with agencieswhich are dealing with a
numberofdifferent events andon
different scales.’’
Mr Hartwill be preparing aproposal
for councillorstoconsider as part of
next year’s 2022/23 Annual Plan
process.
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