A State of National Emergency has been declared across the country and in response, the Hurunui District Council has activated its Emergency Operations Centre (EOC).

When the New Zealand Government announced today that it was putting in place the country’s second ever State of National Emergency, the Hurunui District Council held its first Emergency Operation Centre meeting in relation to COVID-19.

While the council is focused on maintaining essential services (and will continue to run these services), we will also now be further supporting the nationwide Civil Defence movement against COVID-19 and activating local civil defence measures where needed.

The EOC must have a Controller for critical decision making, who is given further legislative means and access to extra-ordinary powers to take action where needed.

CEO Hamish Dobbie, the Hurunui’s acting EOC Controller, said “A State of National Emergency triggers a lot of action across the country. We do not make decisions lightly, but we will be taking this emergency and our support of the nationwide effort very seriously”.

“Today we discussed our immediate responsibilities, particularly in the welfare area. There are a lot of avenues of help available to our residents and we will be looking for those who need to connect with these services,” he said.

“We are also reminding our residents to stay home to save lives. This district has been through hard times before and together we can do it again.”

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