Thread by @mintyhiggins, So with the declaration of a National State of Emergency being, I [...]

So with the declaration of a National State of Emergency being, I thought I& #39;d do a thread on what a State of Emergency means and how incidents are managed

A State of Emergency isn& #39;t about a physical response, it& #39;s signing a piece of paper that provides additional powers to a lead agency. These powers can be used to do things like arrest people not following legal instruction, or for police to remove people from certain environments

What is important about this, is that even though it can supersede traditional rights, it MUST be justified and the decision maker can be held accountable for abuse of this unilateral decision making power

Declarations must be gazetted and all documentation relating to incidents must be kept. The OIA and LGOIMA do not fall by the wayside in events like this. In NZ things are stored in a program called EMIS and its the tool that all relevant workers (should) use

But how are decisions made Linsey? Who makes the decisions and how do they keep their shit together?

Well reader, never fear, in NZ we have something called CIMS, it& #39;s used by a bunch of different agencies in NZ and the aim is to have a common system to manage incidents

CIMS is pretty sweet. It works to make sure that every function in an incident (big or small) is covered and that nothing is forgotten.

I& #39;ll tell you about each role but first, incident management levels

CIMS is modular and scaleable, so you can run it with like 3 people at an isolated incident, like a scrub fire. Or you can run multiple layers including a National Coordination Centre

The level of activation depends on the incident, and layers of coordination are added as the event requires greater coordination. E.g. in 2017 there were floods across Whanganui-Manawatu, so we had a regional response and if I recall a limited National coordination role

Each function has specific duties and colour. Depending on the role, you wear a sweet high vis vest with that colour. The intent is, if you are walking into any EOC/ECC etc. in the country, you will know who is doing what, even if you have no idea who they are

At the top is the controller. They are the only person in a white high vis vest. They are the decision maker and the one who holds the accountability. Generally the people who are controllers, are CE& #39;s and deputy CE& #39;s. They absorb all the info and make calls

In the Control Team is the red high vis crew. One of these people manages the response centre as like an office manager. They troubleshoot, make sure people have things and manage conflict. Conflict is very real in these environments because it is stressful

You also have technical experts. These are the people with knowledge specific to the incident. They make sure the Controller has all the info and makes an educated and informed decision based on evidence

One of the other red team, is the PA to the Controller. Because OIA and LGOIMA don& #39;t take a holiday, the PA to the controller is the one who is making sure everything, and all decisions are written down. In BAU, they are usually the PA to the person taking up the Controller role

Because, here& #39;s the thing, all these people in this structure have BAU roles. They aren& #39;t a specialised team. They& #39;re just (hopefully) trained in how to operate in this system

Next up in the red is the Risk and Legal role. They cover off the legislative side of things. Making sure the Controller knows the implications of actions from a legal standpoint

Then there& #39;s Iwi/Maori representation. They provide cultural support and make sure Maori interests are represented, as well as communicating through to Maori comms channels

Now moving on to a new colour, green! Green is Safety. They make sure that those who are involved in responding to the incident are kept safe according to the Health and Safety at Work Act 2015. They aren& #39;t responsible as PCBU, but they advise

Now we are moving through colours, we& #39;re onto dark blue. Dark blue is Intelligence. They suck all the information in, analyse it and then feed it to relevant people. They are the eyes and ears of the centre. If intel isn& #39;t reliable, bad decisions are made

The next colour is Pink. They& #39;re Planning. Their job is to use the intel and the resources available to provide solutions to problems. They love a good SMART plan. They feed plans to the Controller who makes a call on the best/most appropriate plan

Orange is Operations they are the nuts and bolts, infrastructure, volunteer management, coordinating those in the field, and coordinating support agencies. They& #39;re one of the more external facing parts of the operation

Yellow is Logistics. They keep people fed, arrange transport, pay the bills, make sure computers work etc. They also let the Controller and Planning know what community resources are available to aid them in decision making

Next up is the Public Information Managers (PIM& #39;s) in Purple. This is your comms team. With incidents, information needs to be super structured and also the right information needs to be circulated. These people do that. Good comms = a reassured public

Last but not least, is Welfare in light blue. They are the community facing aspect that most people will see. They support those running welfare centres, manage information of needs, assess and provide supports. This can range greatly

That& #39;s roughly the functions in a nutshell. An important thing to note is you don& #39;t need to declare an emergency to activate a response centre. If you don& #39;t need the legal powers you can just coordinate a response

Depending on the incident, different orgs become the & #39;Lead Agency& #39; in pandemics it& #39;s Ministry of Health, usually in Civil Defence (my knowledge base), it& #39;s the Local Authority. The lead agency is the one with the decision making authority

Whoops! I forgot about the Recovery manager! They wear grey. Their role is to start planning the recovery from day one of the incident, rather than thinking about it after. This is important to make sure things return to normal(ish) as quick as possible

And that& #39;s all.

If you& #39;re bored and want to learn more, this is the handbook that we use in NZ https://www.civildefence.govt.nz/assets/Uploads/CIMS-3rd-edition-FINAL-Aug-2019.pdf
Currently">https://www.civildefence.govt.nz/assets/Up... we are between 2nd and 3rd edition so there& #39;s some small differences in roles as we continue to adapt CIMS to use in NZ

If you ever wanted to get trained up to work in an operations centre, hit up your Civil Defence team at your Local Council, they& #39;re always keen for more people.

Otherwise, any questions ask away!

For those interested, this is what an EOC looks like. Table set ups and technology will differ slightly, but now y’all will be able to identify who those strangers are, and what their purpose is, which is the strength of CIMS

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