Jan Perriam, who has been a resident of Omarama for 20 years and a volunteer for Rural Fire for 15 years, was officially appointed to the role in May.
Since then Mrs Perriam has set about building a fully trained team that will support the community in the event of a Civil Defence emergency.
She said they were lucky to have a good basis for the team, including two people in the area who had already been trained for Civil Defence emergencies, and many others with a great deal of experience and local knowledge.
They also had ‘‘a good community that comes together for these types of things''.
The floods in May had provided a timely reminder of the need to be prepared for an emergency and had provided a ‘‘good learning curve'' for everyone, especially those new to the area, she said.
Although the floods did not result in the declaration of a Civil Defence emergency, she said the time would come when the community would need to deal with a full-scale Civil Defence emergency such as a serious earthquake.
In such an event, Omarama could be cut off from the outside world for up to nine days.
Mrs Perriam said the community had a high level of selfreliance because of its isolation and had a ‘‘community approach to resourcing''.
This had helped them buy valuable emergency equipment, including an emergency response vehicle which was available to the community for all emergency situations including fires and search and rescue.
Her focus is now on upgrading their communications system and looking at the possibility of relocating the Civil Defence headquarters from the school to the more centrally located community hall.
- Andrea Kydd-Law
