Preparation pays off during February floods
Environment Southland councillor and Civil Defence Emergency Management Group chair Neville Cook and Emergency Management Southland manager Angus McKay sign the declaration of a state of emergency for Southland on Tuesday 4 February.
“Our approach has been about building relationships with key people, building that trust and confidence and knowing who to talk to. We were able to delegate decisions to local people who were in the best position to make those decisions and let them get on with it. We supported them to do what they knew was best.”
Angus said the evacuation of tourists from Milford is believed to be the biggest air evacuation in New Zealand and required a huge team effort to ensure the tourists were not only safely evacuated, but that their needs were met when they arrived in Te Anau.
“Many of these people arrived wet, cold and quite distressed. Some of them had nothing with them and many were concerned about what all this was going to cost them.”
Angus said the overseas tourists were both impressed to discover their unique experience came at no cost and humbled by the care they received.
For Angus, who has been in Southland for just under five years, he always imagined the big emergency would be a flood.
“We’ve stood up the Emergency Coordination Centre to assist with other things, like the velvetleaf incursion and provided support during smaller events, but I expected a big flood would come eventually.
“It was a bit of the unknown because we had lots of flood protection that was amazing but it really hadn’t been put to the test. On the whole it stood up really well, but it was a reminder that we will still get lots of flooding even with the best protection in place, that’s the reality.”
The highlights for Angus include the success of the emergency mobile alert system, the community approach, the efforts of the team in the Emergency Coordination Centre and the support of the wider Civil Defence community, including the fly-in team (teams formed at a national level who fly in to support regional Civil Defence teams during an event).
“But at the end of the day it’s about the people and they all performed really well. You can have all the great processes and systems, but it’s the people who make it happen.”
And while the recovery continues, Angus is all too aware that there’s no time to take a breath.
“We actually don’t know what’s around the corner – we have to be ready if this was to happen again in another two weeks. And we would be…”
This story was written before the Covid-19 lockdown when Angus and his team were immediately put into action to support the Government response.
