Local Government Emergency

Recently Regional Councillors Neil Kirton and Tim Gilbertson called for greater co operation between our five councils. This followed a Chamber of Commerce letter suggestion a referendum on amalgamation be held in conjunction with this years local Government elections. Something I have also been suggesting.
Apparently talks on greater co operation have been going on for 10 years or more but little progress has been made.
Just two days after the report an event occurred which to me highlighted the disjointed relationships between our local councils. I am talking of course about the Tsunami scare following a massive 8.8 earthquake off the coast of Chile.
A major natural disaster is always on the cards for Hawke's Bay. A couple of thousand years ago ( geologically only yesterday) a massive eruption where Lake Taupo now is, smothered Hawke's Bay with ash. It is at least the 4th time this has happened and it will likely happen again.
Seventy nine years ago we were hit by a major earthquake that all but destroyed both Napier and Hastings. It could and probably will happen again.
In the 1960's our coastline was battered by a Tsunami that originated of the coast of South America where the latest one started. There was some damage, no lives were lost, but it shows these events are not isolated.
I have had some encounters with Tsunami. In 1975 while working in the Solomon Islands I flew over an area not long after a massive Tsunami had hit the coast, traveling hundreds of meters inland and killing thousands of villagers. From the air it was just a dirty brown scar reaching from the sea but clearly on the ground it was total disaster.
One night a little later in Rabaul on the island of New Britain there was a large earthquake in the middle of the night. Next morning I was shown a serious of photographs on display in the foyer showing the result of a previous earthquake. A wall of water travelled across the harbour hitting the sea wall maybe 100 metres from the motel then continued across the grass and road until it hit the outer wall of the building where I had been sleeping. After smashing through the ground floor units it continued out the other side of the rooms perhaps a metre and a half deep. One astonishing shot showed a wall of brown water pouring into the swimming pool at one end while at the other end it was still calm and blue.
Of course these are just tiddlers. When the Indonesian volcano of Krakatoa exploded in the 1880's, a wall of water was so high it swept away people who had climbed a hill over 30 metres high for protection.
So what has all of this got to do with Hawke's Bay. Throughout the day of the Tsunami I received a constant bombardment of media releases updating me on the tsunami.
At least six bulletins came from the Regional Council, four from the Napier City Council and I assume more were put out by the Hastings District Council.
Three organisations were working to minimise the threat to the people of Hawke's Bay. In the field there seemed to be inconsistency. In Napier the market on Marine parade was in full swing, where as Haumoana and Te Awanga were both evacuated and Waimarama self evacuated. In Clive I heard a woman asking the Police why her area had not been evacuated. The police seemed to be operating under different instructions again.
I am not criticising those in the field. They were doing what seemed right, but it seemed to me the three organisations were unaware of each others actions. It was after all a single threat to the whole area.
Natural disasters are real threats to our safety. It is only a matter of time before the big one, what ever it is, hits Hawke's Bay. Parts of Napier including the airport are only a couple of meters above high tide. A three meter Tsunami on top of a king tide could well reach into the suburbs threatening lives.
We need one controlling civil defence authority possibly working under the control of full time emergency agencies of Fire, Ambulance, and Police. Fire in particular are probably the only organisation with the necessary skills and equipment to handle a major disaster.
Not only would there be a better co-ordinated response, presumably there would also be financial savings for ratepayers.
We should consider the Tsunami a dry run for the real thing. When the real thing does happen we must be prepared in the best way possible.
So if our councilors have any real intention of working in unison then a single emergency management organisation would be a good place to start.