Central Otago residents and ratepayers are being encouraged to sign up for 'Gets Ready', to build our community’s capability to support each other during emergencies.

Gets Ready was launched in Central Otago in September last year and to date 1,200 addresses are registered in the database.

Gets Ready is a tool that will allow Council (in its local civil defence role) to send real-time alerts during an emergency.

It lets people register friends or whānau who may need extra assistance in an emergency, lets people register skills, resources or aid that they can provide during an emergency, and helps prepare neighbourhoods to be part of a coordinated community response.

Central Otago Emergency Management Officer Matt Alley said the debrief of the Council-led response to COVID-19 identified areas for further improvement and training.

“Our Public Information Management team has identified huge value in this tool to enhance the work they do, but the more of our community we can get to sign up to the system the more powerful a tool this can be for future emergency responses so we are encouraging everyone to sign up and spread the word.”

Matt said the best thing about Gets Ready was its potential to increase community resilience and strengthen neighbourhood networks.

"It’s a database to identify who has particularly skills and resources in our community – for example, we can search on who has a portable generator if we lose power, who has a 4WD if roads are affected by flooding, snow or slips, and those with language skills who could help translate important messages for our overseas visitors and migrant workers. 

“It also highlights who might have particular needs so we can plan to cater for these as a community.

“Being able to log on and access and update your own details puts the ownership back with the community and will dovetail nicely with the community response plans we are rolling out for our district."​​

If you haven’t registered yet then sign up today to the database at centralotago.getsready.net/. It’s a very quick process and you will only be sent alerts relevant to the address you record.