Disaster exercise goes well, some problems to be fixed

Director of Emergency Management Cook Islands Charles Carlson is pleased with the overall outcome of the disaster exercise carried out on Thursday.
Carlson said the simple objective was to assess the response of various agencies to any disaster. In his view the exercise went very well.
He said problems with each agency taking part were highlighted but their good points also emerged. It was a practise session where mistakes needed to be identified so changes could be made before the “real thing” happened.
It was the first major exercise of its type so there was no previous one to compare it to. In fact, said Carlson, the Cook Islands was only the second Pacific nation to conduct a national exercise. Vanuatu was the other.
Taking part were 20 local agencies, including Police, Red Cross, Health, Fire Service and Search and Rescue. In all some 100 people participated. It was a big undertaking.
DEBRIEF
A debriefing was held at the Edgewater Resort on Friday morning for the participating agencies.
This was led by the visiting team of disaster management experts;
n Colin Fiford - Assistant Director Education and Training, Emergency Management Australia,
n Kathryn Hawley - Programme Director in Risk Management, Asia Foundation, Suva, Fiji,
n and Keith Evans - Regional Emergency Management Advisor, NZ Ministry of Civil Defence and Emergency Management.
Also part of this group were Deputy Commissioner of Police Maara Tetava and Tukatara Tangi, Training Support Officer from SOPAC, Fiji.
Some of the key areas where improvements were needed were in Communications, the National Operations Centre, Search and Rescue and Operations.
Carlson said none of the problems were insurmountable and improvements were straight forward.
In communications, the scenario was that there was a complete breakdown of Telecom services. While alternative means to communicate especially with the outer islands existed (satellite phones, VHF radios and Ham radios), these were limited and reliance was on key organisations or individuals. Also not all outer islands could be reached.
CROWDED
The National Emergency Operations Centre was crowded when agencies became involved. No large grid maps or tracking maps existed and breakdowns occurred when messages were relayed to outside parties in the field such as the search and rescue teams.
Search and Rescue teams experienced incorrect messages being received. Miscommunication occurred when messages were relayed. In one case the wrong location was passed on and several hours were wasted.
Some persons were unsure of their legal authority. For example to close down the airport.
As regards operations (the events that happened), Carlson said at the end of the day, each agency realised their own mistakes. The scenario dealt with was the simulation of a collapsed Safety Centre complete with simulated injuries.
Carlson said the team from the Health Ministry arrived in numbers and rushed in. They were too keen, said Carlson. They had no tent for recovery of bodies and wore no identification vests. The Fire Service did well in this scenario.
Some organisations, said Carlson, had no operational procedures while others had holes in theirs. Some taking part had no protective gear thus in a real emergency they would be at risk.
MAYOR
One issue was raised by Teariki Matenga, Mayor of Takitumu Vaka, who felt left out of the loop and unsure as to local Vaka’s roles.
He felt they should have been contacted as they could have played a more active role. Carlson said he told Matenga that he had met with all Mayors previously and discussed their roles in the event of a disaster.
As to what happens now, Carlson said no plans had been made for another exercise but it would be ideal to hold such an event annually.
He said there would be a follow up in about a month’s time to check if the agencies had addressed their problems. A final report would then be produced and distributed to all agencies.

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