Matthew Nolan: $20m system not good for gastro outbreak

Matthew Nolan.

It seems implausible, in this age of worldwide connectivity and immediate access to information, that councils, district health boards and the emergency services cannot provide emergency notifications such as immediate and targeted warnings, alerts and updates to vulnerable sites and groups.

These would include schools and colleges, aged care/rest home sites, tourist sites (such as accommodation, event, experience and hospitality locations) and kindergarten, daycare and similar sites.

An emergency notification system should provide targeted warnings, alerts, information and updates regarding imminent dangers, unfolding emergency situations, access to essential resources such as water, critical infrastructure including transport and also have capacity for misinformation management.

Most government agencies, corporate entities, large and small businesses and the emergency services use social media to support their communications plan and media mix.

However, only local authorities use social media as an operational tool for alerts and warnings to the community, including the vulnerable sectors. Dentists, doctors, airlines and the local warrant of fitness provider use targeted texts to inform, remind and alert users to their next appointment, flight or WOF.

It would seem reasonable to expect that councils would use readily available technology when responding to life-threatening emergency situations. The Havelock North water contamination event has highlighted the absence of this capability - a factor identified in the Review of The Hastings District Councils response to the event.

The report was prepared by the former director of Civil Defence and Emergency Management, John Hamilton. Item 47 of the Hamilton Report refers to the Hastings District Council using media releases and Facebook at 6.30pm on Friday, August 12 to alert the community.

The report states: "The message did not at first get the desired penetration of the community and as a consequence, many residents complained during the weekend that they had not been advised of the problem or the actions they should take."

Item 90 of the report states that "a number of factors were in play which prevented better communications in the initial stages of the response".

A critical aspect of this was that "Informing the aged care facilities was delayed when the District Health Board did not make contact with them until mid-morning Saturday".

The Hamilton Report refers to the proposed national alerting system as follows: "The Ministry of Civil Defence & Emergency Management has sought government funding to introduce a national alerting system based on cell broadcasting technologies but with no success yet.

"Had such a system been available in an event like the Havelock North water emergency, saying nothing of tsunami warnings, widespread flooding or adverse weather, volcanic ash fall, rural fires, pandemics, chemical emergencies and police and security issues, specific areas under threat could be alerted electronically in addition to other communications channels, and the distribution increased and the reaction by residents enhanced.

"The Havelock North incident illustrates the value of a national alerting system."

The Hamilton Report recommends that the Hastings District Council "In conjunction with the Hawke's Bay Civil Defence and Emergency Management Group, advocate for the introduction of a national public alerting system using technology such as cell broadcasting".

This is a reference to the proposed $20 million cellphone text system that provides for emergency text messages to be sent to every cellphone that is turned on and connected to a cellphone network.

There are serious flaws in the proposed national alerting system. A sample of these flaws referenced to the Havelock North event are:

1. The proposed system has been likened to a 2017 version of a 1940 air raid siren in that it will sound an alert but is unable to provide detailed information as it is limited to a "one size fits all" text message.

2. The proposed system is "one way" only. It is not interactive. In the Havelock North situation it would not have been possible for aged care sites (or any sites) to confirm that the message had been received. From an operational viewpoint there is little value in sending a message to vulnerable sites such as aged care sites if there is no capability to confirm that the message has been received.

3. The alert messages provided by the proposed system would have been received widely across Hastings, Napier and environs rather than targeted to the relevant Havelock North sites. Ongoing use of the proposed national alerting system in this circumstance could quite conceivably create the prospect of residents ignoring the repeated texts and therefore becoming vulnerable should another event occur - such as a tsunami.

4. The proposed national alerting system cannot send targeted messages to different groups - e.g. a message to aged care sites and a different message to schools.

It would seem that a better system is required and certainly a system without the reported $20m price tag.

- Matthew Nolan has more than 30 years experience in emergency management, including operational management roles as a search and rescue adviser to NZ Police and incident controller for rural fires. He served six years as a city councillor at Porirua. He is the founder and a director of the Readynet emergency management information sharing system.