At a meeting this week, Cr Frank Dooley, of Westport, questioned how it worked, noting media headlines that the regional council had still not decided where to site evacuation centres in Westport.
Other councillors backed him, citing "11th hour" responses during floods and "headless chickens" running around.
Regional council meeting chairman Allan Birchfield said civil defence did need "a bit of a shake-up".
Cr Dooley said the priorities - such as where to have Westport evacuation centres - needed to be clearer so residents already knew what to do.
"We shouldn’t be making decisions in the middle of a flood."
Strategy and communications manager Nichola Costley said an evacuation plan for Westport had been ongoing, and was at the point of being "socialised" to stakeholders.
Planning and science manager Rachel Vaughan said the structure in an emergency involved the National Emergency Management Agency, the West Coast Emergency Management Joint Committee and each district’s civil defence group.
Cr Brett Cummings said the complex structure needed addressing.
Johnson Brothers Transport owner and new councillor Mark McIntyre, of Westport, said after having lived through at least three disasters, and being called upon to provide resources for the emergency response, his experience was "everything seems to be happening halfway through".
"It’s all 11th hour, rush, rush, rush, and it’s too late."
Cr Andy Campbell, of South Westland, noted disaster response in the region was generally focused on a particular district. But he characterised what he had seen to be like "headless chickens" trying to respond.
He suggested deploying Fire and Emergency NZ with its volunteer network across the region.
- By Brendon McMahon
