All hands to the PumpHouse

Locals dismayed at civil-defence failures

People who coordinated community responses to flooding in Sunnynook and Milford were left angry and bemused at the response by authorities following the replacement of civil-defence structures with Auckland Emergency Management (AEM), a council arm that expects communities to come up with their own plans for dealing with disasters.

Among other failings, North Shore Events Centre (Eventfinda Stadium) in Wairau Valley was designated as the northern emergency centre on ‘Flood Friday’ – 27 January – until authorities realised it was in the flood zone and shifted it to Albany.

“Why did I have to wake up and think, ‘What are we doing?’” asked Milford Residents Association co-chair Norma Bott. “Where were the Army and the Navy?”

Devonport-Takapuna Local Board member and Sunnynook resident Mel Powell said when Defence personnel turned up five days after the flood, one serviceperson told her: “We’ve been waiting to be deployed for the week.”

Both women are unhappy that activating such welcome help seemed so difficult.

Two years ago, devolution of responsibility to communities was laid out at a workshop facilitated by Auckland North Community and Development, known as Ancad. With funding of $30,000 from the previous local board, the idea was to help each area be prepared.

AEM staff attended. Sunnynook Community Centre co-ordinator Bronwyn Bound remembered the outline. “We were told that Civil Defence was no more and there was this Auckland Emergency Management, and individual community needed to be self-sufficient for five days.”

So it played out, give a day or two, after the flood of 27 January. Volunteers stepped up, as local leaders lobbied for emergency assistance. “Instead of money to make those resilience plans, imagine if we had that money for civil defence training annually,” said Powell.

So far only two plans, for Sunnynook and Devonport, are finished and on Ancad’s website. Community groups were bemused there was no template supplied and little guidance. Groups were asked to consider all contingencies, rather than start with expert advice and add in local circumstances.

Milford opted out early, having gone through a similar time-consuming Civil Defence exercise and training previously. “We didn’t see the point in reinventing the wheel,” Bott said. The council is reviewing its emergency flood response.