It is 9.30 on a Wednesday morning in Alexandra, and apparently, Otago is snowed under. Not really. But inside the Central Otago District Council building, nobody is acting like it isn’t. My hypothetical gumboots are still damp from the hypothetical snow-sodden ground outside. The real forecast is for overcast skies with a biting wind chill, but snow or not, the plan is for everyone to remain warm, purposeful, and operating under all conditions, which for today’s purposes is crucial. Welcome to Whakarite Kia Rite –
Prepare to be Ready: Otago Civil Defence Emergency Management’s annual region-wide emergency exercise, simulating a significant snowstorm – heavy snow to low levels, strong winds, road closures, power outages, isolated communities. Every district council emergency operations centre (EOC) across Otago activated simultaneously for the first time, with all information and situations feeding up to the group emergency co-ordination centre in Dunedin overseeing the lot. Simulating real-world processes, I have been briefed via the network’s social media and communications team as they receive updates on weather
conditions, but awaiting an official briefing due later the day. I’m following emergency management adviser Derek Shaw today. Calm and measured, he walks me through the main operations floor where staff work across clearly defined functions. He explained each one methodically. Those in operations are the doers. Planning looks ahead – tomorrow, next week, three months out. There’s logistics, who source whatever is needed. Intelligence collects information and produces situation reports. Then there’s the public information team, tasked with filling what Mr Shaw calls ‘‘the
information void’’. ‘‘Our base system is a co-ordinated incident management system,’’ he says, ‘‘sort of a Henry Ford production line, where you have information coming in, it’s dealt with in bite-size amounts, and divided up between the appropriate functions. ‘‘We’ve got a really intelligent workforce, and we want to empower them to make the decisions.’’ Outside, he tells me about the stakeholders in a real event – police, Fire and Emergency New Zealand (Fenz), Fulton Hogan (critical for keeping roads passable), the Ministry of Health,
government agencies, each with its own command structure, all folding into one co-ordinated response. The scale today is new too. The last exercise, 18 months ago, each local authority exercised on its own. This time, it’s all of Otago at once. ‘‘The whole idea of the co-ordination is to solve the problem,’’ Mr Shaw says, ‘‘if we need Defence, helicopters, whatever we need. ‘‘It is constant problem-solving.’’ We are now in a small communications room. It is 9.59am, and the Civil Defence Emergency Management network
is about to be activated. Mr Shaw explains that communities across the region – Waipiata, Ranfurly – are due to call in to the Alexandra EOC at 10am, running through scenarios as though a real storm is raging outside. Mr Shaw said they have never used it to call out before, other than around the hall. Then the clocks hit 10am. ‘‘Ranfurly service centre, calling any Civil Defence unit, over.’’ ‘‘Ranfurly, this is Alex EOC, hearing you loud and clear.’’ Ranfurly has no power. No
internet. Starlink is down due to authentication issues. Four days of fuel. Emergency heating running. Dunedin tunes in, requests updates. The exchanges are clean, efficient, logged in real time. Then Waipiata reports an elderly male on the main street. Suspected broken hip. Then they cut out. ‘‘Waipiata, this is Alex EOC. You broke off there. Come back to me.’’ ‘‘Are you hearing me now?’’ There’s a pause. Static. Then: ‘‘Copy, loud and clear.’’. There is no cell coverage. They are managing the man’s condition until
support arrives. Over the next tense minutes, operations contacts Fenz and Hato Hone St John, an ETA is confirmed, the address logged. ‘‘Thank you very much, Waipiata CRT. Ending the exercise. We know that we can be heard. Thank you. Over.’’ Collectively, we all let out a big sigh. I didn’t even realise I was holding my breath. Mr Shaw points out that this is the point – not just co-ordination between agencies, but the assurance that the most remote communities are connected to the
system. Waipiata is a small hamlet on the Otago Central Rail Trail, he says. The exercise exists, in part, so that when something goes wrong, someone picks up the radio and answers. I mentioned how calm the atmosphere felt in the main hub of the centre. CODC chief executive Peter Kelly, with 34 years in the army behind him, said: ‘‘There’s no point not being as ‘calm as you can’ doing this. ‘‘Ultimately there will be a time when we are called upon to do
this, so it’s important people are prepared and familiar with it all.’’ Next, I have a sit-down update with Central Otago District Mayor Tamah Alley. ‘‘It is imperative that we exercise this in a slightly less stressful setting so it can become almost muscle memory for our teams and the entire operation,’’ she says. ‘‘We take it really seriously because we know that many of our communities will be on their own and isolated. ‘‘This really complements individual families and businesses being prepared for a
civil defence emergency.’’ I asked what her message to the public would be if a hypothetical blizzard was battering us as we spoke. ‘‘Central Otago is amazing at banding together and supporting one another. Looking after your neighbours – now is the time to do so.’’ Strategy and policy lead Alix Crosbie has been the public information management lead for the morning shift – her first time in the role. ‘‘It’s been so much fun and really engaging,’’ she says. Earlier, her team held a
joint meeting with public information leads from every council across Otago and the emergency control centre. In a real scenario, Mrs Crosbie would be one of the key people talking to me as media, providing updates, photos and hearing public concerns. One scenario her team managed was a local hospital at capacity, another was a busload of 50 tourists – first missing, then accounted for – during the snowstorm. ‘‘It was valuable to stop and remember you can come up with solutions, but that there
is also a playbook for a reason, which really supports us too.’’ During all this, Mr Shaw made it clear staff welfare was one of the exercise’s priorities. To look after the ones looking after us. Rosters, swap-outs, breaks were tracked. Refreshments, food, jam and cream buns were all essential to the day’s success. Senior Constable Dave Cowie was part of the next wave of staff, starting at noon. Working with police search and rescue across Otago Lakes and Central Otago LandSAR, he was there
as an adviser and liaison between sectors. Snr Const Cowie said the shift change was clear, whiteboards were updated and ready for a clean handover. Just after 2.30pm, the mock media stand-up started. Mrs Alley, Mr Kelly and Snr Const Cowie brief the room, with media personnel including me free to ask questions. Is this a state of emergency? Has a main point of contact been established for the public? Have conditions worsened? Is there immediate funding support for impacted residents and businesses? Understanding both
strengths and gaps in the day’s information was a key focus for staff, and it felt valuable and vital to ask for information that would be of real-world interest. The next day, when asked about the day’s overall running, Mr Shaw said he believed the exercise was a credit to everyone involved. ‘‘The Central Otago District Council staff, the external stakeholders, and the community groups (from as remotely as Waipiata that called in by VHF radio to test their systems and training) . we tested
our management platform to capacity which helps us to know where the boundaries of the system are and we can now work within those.’’ The entire team will hold a series of debriefs following the exercise but the realism of the day was never in question. As Mr Shaw notes it was hard to ignore, especially with the day starting at 1˚C, and thick fog settling outside – snowstorm conditions didn’t require too much imagination. • The exercise was held on Wednesday. No actual emergency
occurred. Essential services continued as normal throughout.
Otago Civil Defence Emergency Management, Central Otago District Council, emergency operations centre, Alexandra EOC, VHF radio, Waipiata, Ranfurly, snowstorm exercise, Fenz, Hato Hone St John