Businesses along the South Coast may have plans in place for internal security but not “a real emergency plan”.
This is the view of chairperson of the Christ Church West District Emergency Organisation (DEO), Ian Smitten, who urged businesses to develop Emergency Operations Plans (EOPs).
Chair of the Christ Church West DEO Ian Smitten. (Picture by Tre Greaves.)
“The EOP speaks to getting staff, visitors and residents safely away from the buildings and to safer zones. However, if there is an impact, electricity, landlines, everything goes down, so they will need a good communications system that could reach our system as we have communications with the police, fire and ambulance,” he said during a community consultation meeting at St Matthias Church Hall, Christ Church.
“So if they are able to link up with us during outages, we can get through to any of the emergency services that they may need.”
The community consultation was held in collaboration with the Department of Emergency Management, Coastal Zone Management Unit (CMZU) as they engaged residents and business representatives about vulnerable groups, and evacuation routes.