A report by Emergency Management Southland acting manager Tracey Fraser summarising the October 23 storm
raised issues of critical infrastructure going down after power outages, and insufficient backup capacity leading to telecommunication failure in places with extended power loss.
The latter meant 111 became unavailable.
Although there was a known risk, many organisations did not have backup communication, and measures such as community response group radios were not utilised, the report showed.
Ms Fraser told Local Democracy Reporting there were several possible reasons why the radios were not widely used.
They included the cell service still being available to some communities, self-sufficiency, needs not being urgent, a lack of awareness about the radios and people not being actively engaged in the local response group.
Co-ordination centre staffing was also a problem, and the report said several individuals had not completed the level of training required for effective and efficient CIMS functions — the country’s framework for co-ordinated incident management.
"It is a two-day NZQA course. Training is voluntary for staff, so signing up to CIMS is a commitment and they need to ask for time away from their usual duties," Ms Fraser explained.
Another issue was only about a half of trained staff had completed the activation availability process, which was a form for council staff to indicate their availability for response.
That was voluntary and up to staff who had completed training to fill out, Ms Fraser said.
The report says staffing was a "significant challenge" but notes several staff from four councils showed "exceptional commitment" by covering multiple shifts in the emergency co-ordination centre.
A state of emergency was in place for 14 days in Southland as a result of the storm.
Strong winds toppled trees and cut power to thousands, resulting in long days in the field for linesmen.
■ LDR is local body journalism co-funded by RNZ and NZ On Air.
