Construction is expected to start in the next year.
Mitchell said New Zealand was at high risk for events like earthquakes and tsunamis. It could better respond to these by having a network of co-ordination centres nationwide.
“Communication and connecting is extremely important. This centre will go a long way to ensuring there’s better communication and connectedness, with all first responders in one location,” Mitchell said in Whangārei today.
“When constructed, the multi-agency co-ordination centre will bring together response agencies under one roof, allowing for faster information sharing, more-efficient resource allocation and improved co-ordination, and collaborate before, during and after emergencies.
“Ultimately, this is about ensuring local and regional emergency responses can be initiated swiftly and effectively, helping to keep people safe,” he said.
Building design work will be among the next preparation stages.
The centre’s impetus comes from the March 2021 tsunami threat caused by an earthquake in the Kermadecs north of New Zealand. It marked the region’s biggest tsunami evacuation as tens of thousands of people had to move to higher ground.
The North’s ECC venue is based in NRC’s main Water St, Whangārei, head office building, which is roughly at sea level and on the edge of a tsunami evacuation zone — as well as in a one-in-100-year flood hazard zone.
Northland Civil Defence evacuated this NRC-based response site as a result of the March 2021 tsunami threat, shifting to the Regent Fenz offices on higher ground.
The new building’s site is about 30m above sea level and above the tsunami and flood hazard zones potentially affecting NRC in Water St.
Fenz Northland district manager Wipari Henwood said during the 2021 tsunami response, civil defence and emergency responders were crammed into Fenz’s Mansfield Tce offices.
“We had everybody here. Even though we were crammed, you could look across the room and make things happen,” Henwood said.
Northland ratepayers’ $6,533,000 towards the centre’s construction and establishment since 2022 is made up of NRC ratepayers’ $5 million, Whangārei District Council ratepayers’ $933,000, Far North District Council’s $500,000, and Kaipara District Council’s $100,000.
Northland Civil Defence emergency manager Graeme MacDonald said NRC would be borrowing to build the centre, and these rates would be used to repay that borrowing over 17 years until 2038-39.
“Northland has had a number of large region-wide emergencies, but we do not have a dedicated multi-agency co-ordination centre that enables a truly integrated across-agency response,” MacDonald said.
The four councils and Fenz have collaborated on the centre.
Northland’s ECC fires into action when the scale and seriousness of a weather or other event such as 2023′s Cyclone Gabrielle requires centralised, region-level emergency response support.
Henwood said the new centre would house about 40 staff Civil Defence and Fenz staff during business-as-usual times.
That would increase to about 60 people when an emergency was declared.
LDR is local body journalism co-funded by RNZ and NZ On Air.
