Central Otago District Council (CODC) staff tested the self-contained emergency response shelter last week, familiarising themselves with its setup and use.
Emergency management adviser to the council Derek Shaw, of Emergency Management Otago, said in a civil defence situation the council would lead the response, so it was important for the team to understand how the shelter worked.
"In situations if it gets to that stage, and the traditional emergency services get overwhelmed ... pretty much everybody here has been trained from that civil defence point of view."
The shelter — which took four people 45 minutes to set up — was transportable in a self-contained trailer, complete with generators and other supplies, and could also be airlifted by helicopter, Mr Shaw said.
It added a layer of resilience and preparedness to the region, as well as minimised impact on the community they were supporting while establishing an emergency operations centre.
"It can be used for whatever you like ... it’s just really limited by your imagination."
St John and other services could set up in or next to the emergency operation centre to create a full response.
Council community vision group manager Dylan Rushbrook, who is also an incident controller, said the shelter gave the functionality of the standard emergency operations centre with the flexibility of being mobile.
"The theory being, if we can’t access what would normally be our standard emergency operations centre — the council chambers building — if that’s flooded or there’s a fire or we just can’t get to it for whatever reason, this can be set up as a makeshift emergency operation centre."
It also allowed the response to be located in the area the emergency was taking place, he said.
