Exercise Pandora

This exercise is designed to train and test the operational capabilities of the Regional and District Local Authorities in terms of their Emergency Operations Centres.

EOC's act as a coordination body in the event of large scale incidents that are starting to stretch emergency services or require broader coordinations of civil and emergency assets.

The exercise this year was based on extreme North West winds with accompanying fires and several incidents designed to extend the emergency services. Several EOC's were operational across the region and the events enabled these groups to communicate with each other to coordinate any cross boundary responses.

Several RATS members participated in the exercise either as operational staff members in the group EOC based in the Regional Council headquarters in Christchurch or as exercise evaluators in the Districts.