Northland Civil Defence

Eight of us from Northland Civil Defence took part in exercise Phoenix – the main city-wide Civil Defence exercise this year – on 7 November 2009.

The exercise was based on a 7.6 magnitude earthquake centered under Petone and the Wellington Emergency Management Office kept us very busy. We were based at Northland School and responded to simulated incidents which ranged from a couple of confused unaccompanied children through to a leaking petrol station, looters, landslides and thirsty, hungry evacuees.

Afterwards we enjoyed a free lunch with other Civil Defence volunteers followed by a rescue demonstration and 4 rural fire fighters dropping out of a helicopter on ropes!

The exercise was fun, we learnt a lot and we are looking forward to the next one.

We always welcome new volunteers, so if this sounds interesting to you then please get in touch with us.

David

Exercise Phoenix is a city-wide Civil Defence exercise that is designed to help us practice for “the big one” and to spot any gaps in our readiness. This is the first time since I’ve been involved in Civil Defence (2004)  that us Wellington City volunteers have been included in Phoenix. It is a region-wide exercise that is staged every year but in the past Wellington City’s involvement appears to have been limited to the WCC employees and emergency services.

We will be at Northland School on Saturday 7 November from about 8am through to about 11:30am and you may well see some of us out and about in Northland & Wilton that morning as we test out our communications and respond to the scenarios and tasks thrown at us by the Emergency Management Office.

Please feel free to drop in and say hello.

David