The art of declaring an emergency, from those who’ve done it
MAYORS rely on the advice of emergency services and civil defence experts when making the call to declare a state of emergency.
‘‘Communication is a really big part of the role, absolutely critical,’’ Tasman mayor Tim
King said. ‘‘Information about when people may need to evacuate, where people can go for support.’’
King and Ashburton mayor Neil Brown, chairman of the Canterbury region’s civil defence team, said the power rested on the mayor to make the declaration, but the operational work rested with staff.
Brown said mayors who were well connected to their community knew if they were communicating enough. ‘‘If there are lots of questions coming in, there’s not enough
information going out,’’ he said.
King said the decision to declare a state of emergency could change from a ‘‘no’’ to a ‘‘yes’’ in a matter of minutes.
The Nelson-Tasman region was also hit with severe weather in August.
King recalled a meeting with then-Nelson mayor Rachel Reese when advisers told them a state of emergency wasn’t necessary.
‘‘Before we even finished the meeting, new information was available. Within half an hour we decided to declare [a state of emergency],’’ he said.
A state of emergency gives staff special powers, notably the power to bypass the need for a consent when machinery was needed to remove debris from obstructed infrastructure, for example.
Former Wellington mayor Andy Foster recalled declaring a state of emergency in June 2021, after a severe sea swell hit parts of Wellington’s coast. It was lifted the day after.
‘‘There was prediction we would get some large and potentially damaging waves and there was a risk to property and potentially people.’’
Foster said he took a precautionary approach, saying he would rather have declared an emergency that was less severe, than not acting quickly and the situation being worse.
He said it was important to communicate the declaration to the public at the same time.