Volunteers from both NZRT-12 and the Emergency Support team will be practising a District-wide Civil Defence exercise this Saturday 17 August, and the public are encouraged to take part.
Between 11am – 12.30pm, Civil Defence volunteers will be activating the community emergency hubs at Cust community hall, the Pegasus community centre, and in the Loburn School hall.
The residents of The Sterling Retirement Village will also have their community emergency hub open in Silverstream.
Council Civil Defence Management Advisor Dean Eades says this is a great opportunity for residents of each area to come and find out more about their community emergency hub, and what to do when it’s activated in an event.
“By coming along to the locations where the hubs are, the community is already one step closer to helping themselves – just by knowing where the community will gather during an event is good knowledge to have.
“The volunteer team will be there to assist you with information and what people can do not just for themselves during an emergency but for others in their immediate community. We will also be updating the community emergency plans while there, so people can assist with that too.”
The Council has been working with residents across the District in recent months to help establish community emergency hubs for their areas. In the event of an emergency, the hubs would act as a safe place for neighbours to gather and help each other in a coordinated way without official assistance.
Each hub contains a small amount of equipment including a VHF radio, maps and stationery, and a Hub Guide which explains how to organise an emergency response and describes the different roles needed.
Dean says that although the hubs are community led during a disaster, Civil Defence volunteers may find themselves there, so it’s important that they train for that scenario too.
“Most of the training that volunteer teams do throughout the year is based around running the Civil Defence Centres, but with the increased number of community emergency hubs opening up around the District, they are practising the skills needed in assisting the community in setting the hubs up and running them.”
Event details:
Saturday 17 August, 11am - 12.30pm
- Loburn School Hall, 73 Hodgsons Road
- Cust Community Centre, Mill Road
- Pegasus Community Centre, 8 Tahuna Street
- The Sterling Clubhouse, 1 Camellia Lane, Silverstream
Swannanoa residents will also have an opportunity to learn about their emergency community hub on Tuesday 3 September. A community meeting with Civil Defence will start at 6pm in the Swannanoa School Hall.