Emergency Management

This section has information on Emergency Management and Civil Defence, and how you can prepare for an emergency.

WREMO - a new regional approach

The new Wellington Region Emergency Management Office (WREMO - the W is silent like in write) was launched on 2 July 2012 to manage Civil Defence Emergency Management services in support of the nine City, District, and Regional Councils of the Wellington region. This is an important development as disasters don’t abide by territorial boundaries and many of our people live in one part of the region and work in another. A shared approach to emergency management will enable our communities to be better prepared and will provide an ability to share resources to best effect.

WREMO is "home-based" in the earthquake-resistant Emergency Management building in Turnbull Street, Thorndon, Wellington, and another purpose built facility in Laings Road, Hutt City. The WREMO staff however continue to work throughout the region, operating from Emergency Management Offices at Porirua, Kapiti, and Masterton.

This significant change sees Emergency Management restructured to provide two vital roles: building resilient communities, and building and maintaining the structures, systems and teams that will enable our community to respond and recover from disasters.

Be prepared

Emergencies happen every single day. Most of the time, these affect only a few people and can be dealt with by Police, Fire Service, Ambulance, and other medical services in our community.

Sometimes emergencies are much worse, and they can affect suburbs, cities, entire regions, maybe the whole country.

Dealing with these kinds of large-scale emergencies is what emergency management is all about - using science, technology, planning and management to get us ready, and get us through.