Piha Resilience Plan (Draft Piha R&R)
In November the R&R looked at whether we could pick up on the Resilience plan and complete the excellent work done by our Deputy Fire Chief of the time, the Surf Clubs, Karekare & Piha First Response people, the Piha Community and facilitated and compiled the Waitakere Ranges Local Board. We presented a concept plan at the R&R AGM and the consensus was that we should strive to complete a plan.
The presentation covered the risks and how we could support our community after an event.
The Piha Community
A coastal village of some 800 permanent residents that also supports the adjacent Anawhata and Karekare communities via Fire and Emergency NZ and Surf NZ and the Creative community.
The community swells seasonally with bach owners, beach goers and occasional major events which can attract more than 5,000 people on any one day.
Plan structure
Identify roles of response agencies
· Fire and Emergency – There to respond to Fires and emergency situations.
· First Response – There to provide a specific medical response.
· Surf clubs – respond to in water events.
· Council – Dogs and Noise.
· Civil Defence and Emergency Management – pick up on larger events e.g. weather.
Identify the role of the Piha Community Resilience Group
Provide local intelligence and bridge the gap between the response to an event and the follow- up actions by / coordination with CDEM / Council/ Utilities etc.
Simple 3 level plan
1. Minor localised event requiring short term resourcing / support.
2. Medium scale event affecting a number of people and maybe requiring food/ shelter for a few hours / Day.
3. Large scale event affecting a large number of people or severely impacted group requiring high level of post response support / multi-day.
Note *-Feedback from the AGM was we should look at splitting north Piha (Cluster 1) into smaller clusters (we are looking at this).
Staging locations
This needs a bit of work and may need some commitment from Council / other agencies to enable this. Specifically in areas where inundation may render community / public facilities inoperable or inaccessible or there are no facilities. Could look at some arrangement with private owners e.g. a barn or shed at the top of the hill.
Group structure
· Needs a lead coordinator,
· Cluster leaders and a back up person for each cluster leader,
· Reliable comms channel between members (not mobile, email or social media) VHF/UHF Radio,
· Needs comms channel to local Brigade, First Response & CDEM.
Bring the likes of the store and Café into the loop so they can contribute – delivery / meeting points, food distribution/ prep etc.
What form does the public plan take?
Single A4 laminated sheet – double sided identifying:
1. Clusters,
2. Contacts within clusters
3. Key contact details (including Fire & CDEM, Surf)
4. Escalation - (if your cluster lead/ back-up not available then who is next)
5. Quick triage process to identify scale of response – (levels 1-3)
Next Steps
The R&R will spend the next 3 months developing the plan in consultation with the community, once the plan is agreed then we can put the plan into action.
· We will have an open session to present the draft plan before putting it into action.
· To make the plan work we need cluster leads and support people for each of up to 8 clusters, plus a coordinator.
· We also need Community board support / funding for printing etc.