Local Government Online welcomes EMIS Announcement

Media Release
For immediate release

27 January 2010

Local Government Online welcomes EMIS Announcement

LGOL General Manager, Cassandra Crowley today congratulated Hon John Carter, The Minister of Civil Defence and Emergency Management on the announcement of a new EMIS supplied by E-Sponder, designed to provide local, regional and national level emergency management response and coordination.

“The ability to share information in a consistent format, across council borders is an extremely significant step up in managing major emergency events that will help councils and the Ministry do their jobs,” said Crowley.

John Hamilton, Director of MCDEM said, “It’s important to note that the MCDEM EMIS will complement rather than replace other electronic systems, such as Readynet, available to local authorities and agencies that help them maintain detailed local data as part of preparing for an emergency.

“These systems hold data that helps local EMOs rapidly identify vulnerable or critical parts of the community with their specific needs and also provides an alerting mechanism. That information is critical in the response to a local emergency and can be readily imported into the E-Sponder EMIS should a national emergency occur,” sid Hamilton.

Readynet holds emergency management information about sites and community groups that is maintained by those groups and made available to emergency service providers.

“Accurate and up- to-date community level information about vulnerable sites such as schools, rest homes, tourist locations and workplaces stored in Readynet will be readily available to MCDEM and easily imported into E-Sponder making the response planned in the Ministry’s EMIS to be targeted and effective,” says Crowley.

“The Readynet system which is used by a number of local authorities and will shortly be available to over half a million kiwis, is the only information system of its type in New Zealand.”

Ends.

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