Kā piti Coast inspectors on disaster alert
Council staff put through their paces
Kāpiti Coast District Council building inspectors were put through their paces yesterday for quickly assessing the safety of buildings in a natural disaster in a training exercise.
Building team manager Steve Cody said the recent floods and landslides in Nelson, Westport and Wellington highlighted the need to be prepared.
“People think ‘it won't happen to me' but when it does, we need to be able to act quickly and effectively to keep people safe. We have to think about the immediate safety of the occupiers of affected properties, but also the first responders and emergency services, then the people who turn up to help the owner evacuate, clean up or repair the building. We need to be able to rapidly assess buildings for safety and the likelihood of further deterioration as the situation can change very swiftly, especially following landslides and earthquakes.”
Since the Christchurch earthquakes, New Zealanders have become familiar with red and yellow stickers appearing on buildings. These indicate whether people must stay out completely (red) or can go in briefly to retrieve important items (yellow), usually under the supervision of emergency services.
“We haven't had to make such assessments for real in Kāpiti since the 2016 Kaikō ura earthquake, so it's important to keep our skills up.
‘‘The team has to be prepared to make good judgment calls based on experience, training and instinct at a time when people are under enormous stress, but safety always comes first.”
For the training exercise, teams were sent out into the field to random areas with mocked up photos of damaged buildings. They did a rapid visual assessment to determine the status of the building.
“We undertake regular training for emergencies, but it's a big ask to take the whole team away from its dayto-day duties processing and inspecting building consent applications. The teams were sent out to various locations and had to load information from the site into their phones and tablets and communicate effectively with those back at the emergency operations centre.''
Find out how to be prepared in an emergency on the council website at kapiticoast. govt.nz/cdem