News

Royal Show November 2007

Hydro response will be again be exhibiting at the 2007 Royal Show held on November 14th-16th in Christchurch. We will have our marquee site in area Q site 4 and 5 and also will look at doing a Heathcote River demonstration with the Steel Barrier to show its effectiveness and keeping water back.

Flood Barriers now on standby in the North Island

With the large amount of flood events both at home and abroad recently, communities in the North Island and their property now have a fighting change against flood waters. Hydro Response Ltd has relocated 180m of 1.25m high advanced flood protection barriers to the new EMANZ Aokautere Campus near Palmerston North making them now able to be deployed anywhere in the North Island in less than 12 hours.

The Geodesign Steel barrier system designed in Sweden has had a solid track record in Europe having operationally provided protection to communities and critical infrastructure from flood waters. As one of the worlds most trusted and used flood protection system, there is over 24,000 metres of product already sold across Europe, North America and Australia. EMANZ students from Whakatane earlier this year put the system to a time trial and erected 20 metres of flood protection to 1.25 metres high in only 15 minutes with a crew of 12 - in comparison to sand bags, the same protective measure would have taken 7.81 hours.

The Emergency Management Academy of New Zealand (EMANZ) exclusively provides Hydro Response accredited flood control training and already has several trained agencies ready to deploy the system anywhere in New Zealand. These teams include the Palmerston North Rescue Emergency Support Team, Palmerston North Red Cross Emergency Response Unit, Whakatane Emergency Response Team and several other agencies are looking at training in line of Hydro Response barriers later this year.

As a strategic partner of Hydro Response we are proud to stand behind the product and assist with hosting the barrier system at our Campus. Palmerston North's central location means we can access 70% of the North Island main centres within 4 hours once the barriers are on the road. What is more encouraging is that is our students are the ones that provide the operational grunt and expertise in the deployment of the barriers, and even better our students add value to the response with the majority having completed Rescue 3 Swiftwater Rescue training programmes ensuring that the barrier installers can also provide a credible flood rescue response whilst deployed remarks EMANZ Chief Executive Steve Glassey.

In the recent round of flooding up in Northland there was certainly interest to have the Geodesign Barriers deployed but the supply was 36 hours away in Canterbury making it not feasible to deploy them in time. Having some of our barrier stock now in Palmerston North at the EMANZ Campus means we can have our product deployed much faster and protecting communities when it is needed suggests Clay Griffin, Managing Director of Hydro Response Limited based in Christchurch.

For organisations looking at evaluating, purchasing, leasing or renting a range of flood control and water containment solutions further information is available on this site.
For emergency management organisations interested in being accredited to operate and deploy Hydro Response products, flood response training information is available from

Civil Defence Conference

A North Island Civil Defence conference was held in Wellington February 2007 with the focus being on Integrated Emergency Management. A number of international guests and speakers attended including the Director General of Emergency Management Australia, Mr Tony Pearce, and a representative of the US Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). Hydro Response was proud to be one of the main exhibitors at the conference, displaying our range of flood protection products to the emergency management sector.

Canterbury Royal Show 2006

November 15th to 17th saw Hydro Response exhibiting at the Canterbury Royal Show held in Christchurch. It provided a great opportunity to display our flood protection products to over 115,000 visitors. In addition to our marquee exhibition site we constructed 60 metres of the Geodesign Steel Barrier on the side of the Heathcote river and dewatered it to allow a mobile office to be lifted into position on the now dry river bed. This demonstration was used to show the effectiveness of the Steel barrier in a simulated flooding situation. It was well received by visitors and show organisers.

Geodesign Flood Barrier at Canterbury Royal Show

Flood Impact Insurance Conference

Our Gold Sponsorship of this conference, held in July 2006 at the Crowne Plaza in Auckland, provided an opportunity to make the insurance industry aware of the latest developments in temporary flood protection products. Held in conjunction with the Insurance Council of New Zealand the conference brought together New Zealand's major insurance companies with speakers such as David Benson-Pope (Ministry of the Environment), Chris Ryan (ICNZ) plus people from Universities, Regional Councils and an international guest speaker from Britain.

National Fieldays

The June 2006 Fieldays provided a fantastic opportunity to launch our flood-fighting product range. We were fortunate to have access to a pond area where we could block off a segment and drain it to demonstrate the effectiveness of the Geodesign Barrier.

We were pleased to have a number of representatives of Civil Defence, Regional Councils and Contractors visit us and were also pleased with the degree of interest shown. We will be working closely with these people over the coming months as we help them to determine the best solution for their flooding and water management "challenges".

More photos are available on the Photo Gallery pages for each of the product ranges.

Flood Response Course (EMANZ)

Two successful Flood Response Courses were held in Whakatane and Palmerston North during June and July 2006. Participants came from Civil Defence, Rural Fire Service, Red Cross and Department of Conservation. Day 1 of the course covered sandbagging and flood response tactics such as how to work safely around flooding environments and considering the response and recovery aspects of flooding.

Day 2 covered the use of Hydro Response's flood protection products including Geodesign Barrier, WIPP System, Floodgate and Water-Gate Barrier.

One thing that became apparent over the two days is the vast advantage in deployment time for the Hydro Response products. Participants were able to control a lot of water in a very short time when compared with traditional sandbagging techniques.

Further courses will be run later in the year with an International Flood Response Course planned for February 2007 in Christchurch.

Hydro Response Partnership

Hydro Response will be working alongside the Palmerston North based Emergency Management Academy of New Zealand in providing demonstrations of the latest Flood Protection Products as part of the Flood Response courses run by EMANZ.

Demonstrations of the Steel Barrier, Water-Gate, WIPP System and the Floodgate will highlight the alternative flood protection products available in New Zealand. This will be an excellent opportunity for Hydro Response to showcase our products on a nationwide level working alongside EMANZ.

The first courses are due to start in June 2006, with Regional Councils and Civil Defence personnel among the clients that will be undertaking these courses as part of a Certificate in Emergency Management.

National Fieldays 2006 Product Demonstrations

Hydro Response has signed up for a site at this years Hamilton Fieldays, to be held at Mystery Creek in Hamilton from June 14th to 17th. The site is located in the Eastern Exhibition Area at East 120. We will have a selection of our products on display as well as an exciting up close look at the Steel Barrier at work.

If you are at the Fieldays this year, drop by for a visit at our stand and see the latest flood protection products on the market.

Hydro Response Website

The final touches are nearing completion of the new Hydro Response website, it has been many hours in the making with the team at Webbuild doing a fantastic job at putting the website together.

Next month new sections will be added featuring new product photos, videos and reports making this one of the most comprehensive flood protection product sites on the web. If you have any ideas for information you would like to see or comments please contact us.