Microsoft Teams found wanting in NEMA's internal review, along with IT systems not being reliable when they were most needed during the Auckland Anniversary storm and Cyclone Gabrielle

New Zealand's National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) has published an internal review of its response during the devastating weather event in Auckland, and Cyclone Gabrielle that killed fifteen people at the start of 2023, finding several serious problems in several areas.

On the technology side, NEMA said Microsoft's Teams collaboration app that is used as part of Emergency Management NZ was found wanting, and led to sub-optimal tasking processes.

"The Emergency Management NZ (‘Emi’) Microsoft Teams tool does not support task management. It does not offer the ability to link tasks, set hierarchies of tasks, and match offers with requests/tasks," NEMA wrote in its report.

NEMA also said access to Emi was problematic, due to security settings on their laptops. 

Microsoft Teams was also inaccessible for several hours on February 12 due to an IT outage, with staff having no Wi-Fi or access to shared files and emails.

The free Signal messenger app  was deemed to work well for both scheduled and ad-hoc updates to the NEMA chief executive and the Minister for Emergency Management, but it was limited to mobile phones at the agency.

NEMA staff said the Signal app needs to be available on desktops and laptops as well, to speed up its use and for filing of messages.

Most functions for the National Coordination Centre at the Beehive, and the National Crisis Management Centre (NCC and NCMC respectively) that had standard operating procedures (SOPs) found their processes wanting and not fit for the scale and pace of the adverse weather events.

The agency also said it needs a shared single-source of truth for its systems. Not having that for NEMA's Common Operating Picture (COP) meant the agency didn't have situational changes that could affect decisions readily and continuously available.

There was a lack of common operating picture information such as deployed staff finding it challenging to access information across multiple locations and Coordinated Incident Management System (CIMS) functions.

Worryingly, NEMA said the NCC/NCMC facility "is not fit for purpose", particularly for large scale-scale events. "NEMA and NCC/NCMC IT was not reliable," the agency said.

The facility used by NEMA currently doesn't have enough space to operate, and meeting rooms. It suffers from poor mobile phone and Wi-Fi reception in some areas, and has poor lighting and ventilation.

NEMA staff also experienced difficulties using their work IT equipment in the regions, as security settings on these limited Internet access via external connections.

Without Internet access, staff couldn't get templates for briefings and handovers. Satellite phones were used for some emergency calls, but NEMA said they're unsuitable even partially for normal mobile phones.

Overall, the internal review presents 19 lessons in areas that must and need to improve, what improved during the event, and what went well during the storms.

"This report provides us with an opportunity for reflection, and for us to reach out to our colleagues across the emergency management system and share what we have identified - include those things that went well and were improvements are needed," NEMA's acting chief executive Jenna Rogers said.

Perhaps most disconcertingly, the agency said in Lesson 10 that "we do not have enough well trained NEMA staff or surge staff to deploy".

NEMA and surge staff that were available to be deployed did a good job, the agency said but "we just did not have enough of them".