People the key to success during an emergency
The busy Emergency Coordination Centre operated 24/7 during the first week of the floods, with people from a variety of services involved.
He acknowledged the entire Southland community who responded superbly to the emergency, making the work of emergency services staff so much easier.
Neville also paid credit to Emergency Management Southland manager Angus McKay and his team who had spent a long time preparing for an emergency, training staff and working with communities to ensure they knew how to support themselves and each other.
“We had the Ministry for Civil Defence sitting with us, there were people who came from so many organisations to work in the Emergency Coordination Centre and there was a real sense that everybody who was there wanted to be there.”
“The potential for damage was high and if we hadn’t had the flood protection infrastructure in place that we do, some of the predictions for possibly disastrous outcomes would have been realised.”
Neville said he will remember this event as a success. He acknowledged there are people who have suffered losses from the flooding but the outcomes could have been so much worse.
“The amazing team we had made a difference, they were prepared to make decisions and adapt when something unexpected came up. We’ve also proved that we can evacuate Milford if we need to and that people can be safely looked after in there in the event of an emergency.
“There’s a lot of learnings from these floods but personally it was a delight to be involved with people so good at their jobs.”
