Community-Driven Emergency Response Plan

In the event of a major civil defence emergency, such as an earthquake, flood, or tsunami, residents cannot expect that emergency services will be able to respond to all parts of the affected region within the first two or three days after the event.  In Porirua city, and particularly in the Paremata Village, this means that we must be prepared to look after ourselves – and assist our neighbours if necessary – for several days without access to normal services such as power, telephone, water, drainage, sewerage, and normal medical treatment.

The Paremata Residents Association Committee, Porirua Healthy Safer City Trust, and Safer Porirua recently approached the Wellington Region Emergency Management Office (WREMO) to facilitate development of a local community-driven emergency response plan to assist our community to survive in the first few days following a major civil defence emergency event.

A complication for our Village is that the rail and road bridges over the entrance to the Pauatahanui Inlet at the South end of Mana Esplanade may be damaged or destroyed in a major event, cutting our community in two.  Our ‘worst case’ response plan will take that possibility into account by splitting the Village in two and treating each part as a separate entity for the purposes of emergency management.