September 13, 2007

MEDIA STATEMENT

Biggest South Island-wide Civil Defence Emergency Management exercise, more than 1,000 people involved

More than 1,000 people are about to take part in one of the biggest Civil Defence Emergency Management (CDEM) exercises held in the South Island for many years.

Pan-Group Exercise Coordinator, Jon Mitchell, said that Exercise Pandora ’07 will be held on September 14 and 15 to test a South Island-wide initial response to a major earthquake on the Main Alpine Fault.

The exercise will involve people from all South Island councils, emergency services, welfare agencies and government agencies, and staff operating from the National Crisis Management Centre beneath the Beehive in Wellington.

“Our aim is to reinforce the co-operation and co-ordination that we must have to respond to an emergency that could affect the whole South Island. This is Civil Defence and Emergency Management’s crucial role – collecting and analysing information so that it can co-ordinate the response by local authorities, emergency services, health services, utilities providers and all the other organisations that would be involved,” Jon Mitchell said.

“For Exercise Pandora purposes only”

Organisations involved in Exercise Pandora will be producing various operational documents during the exercise. These could include situation reports, action plans and media releases All will be clearly marked “for Exercise Pandora purposes only”. While the documents would not be confidential, they are not intended for public distribution as the information in them is not “real”.

It is not intended that operational documents will be released to the media, but media updates may be released during the exercise. We do not wish to cause any possible public confusion. If media are unsure about any documents or information they might have received they should not hesitate to check their status with Ministry of CDEM Public Information Manager, Vince Cholewa.

For useful public information, visit http://www.getthru.govt.nz/

How CDEM is organised
In New Zealand CDEM is organised into 16 CDEM Groups, based on regional boundaries. Each CDEM Group coordinates the planning and emergency responses of local authorities and partner agencies such as emergency services, utilities and welfare agencies to coordinate the response within their region.

The Ministry helps co-ordinate all the organisations involved across the country and provides access to central government support if required.

If an emergency affects a number of regions, national coordination by the Ministry helps link all the sector agencies through national, regional and local arrangements including civil defence emergency management plans, memoranda of understanding, exercises, guidelines, meetings and daily formal and informal contact. The Ministry also manages the National Crisis Management Centre, which can be used to monitor and support regional and local responses.

ENDS

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