Officially, Mr Raine finished his role as Waitaki emergency services manager on Friday, but he will continue to provide support ''week-about'' with his new Civil Defence job on the West Coast until his replacement is appointed by the Waitaki District Council in November.
Mr Raine arrived in the district in February 2009, from a role as St John Otago-Southland regional events and volunteer support manager.
While that was with an emergency service, it was his experience with volunteers that was to prove the big gain for Waitaki Civil Defence.
When he arrived, there were civil defence sector posts throughout the district, but a dearth of volunteers.
For example Kurow had none and Waitaki Bridge, on the banks of the lower Waitaki River by State Highway 1, did not even have a sector post, let alone volunteers, despite the threat from flooding.
Now the district has 135 volunteers, the ''eyes and ears'' on the spot to feed information back to Civil Defence headquarters in Oamaru and help their communities.
Kurow has about 35 volunteers while Waitaki Bridge a sector post and 12 ''very active'' volunteers.
Another achievement has been drawing up Civil Defence community response plans, specifically for individual areas from setting up the sector posts to special requirements of vulnerable individuals.
They are the template to cater for any emergency.
These are already in place for Kurow and Waitaki Bridge, and meetings are planned in East Otago for Macraes, Dunback, Palmerston, Goodwood-Flag Swamp and Shag Point.
In terms of emergencies, the worst was the May 2010 flooding throughout much of the district, with both snow and tsunami warnings during that event.
It was the length of the emergency, more than a week, that was memorable, with many people cut off and the army coming in with four-wheel-drive vehicles to check residents.
That occurred about six weeks after a major exercise, based on a flood, for volunteers and council staff who were trained to activate the Emergency Operations Centre.
''People were still getting used to their roles, and it gave them a degree of confidence in their training,'' he said.
The one major job for the future, Mr Raine believes, is a new Emergency Operations Centre to replace the one at the rear of the Plunket Rooms' Oamaru centennial building in Severn St. It is something
Mr Raine has been seeking for some time, with sites from Awamoa Park to the council chambers in Thames St being looked at.
Mr Raine believes there is the capacity in Oamaru for a joint emergency services building, which would also cater for civil defence as well as the other emergency services on a day-to-day basis.
Now, his role will switch from a district one to a wider regional focus on the West Coast. The new role has been created to provide an overarching co-ordination of district councils.
