Manawatu District leads the way

MANAWATU District Council is leading the way as the territorial authority in the Manawatu-Wanganui region with the most participants so far for the New Zealand Shakeout exercise next month. 

Nearly 11,800 district participants have already registered for New Zealand's biggest earthquake drill at 9.26am on September 26.

The response also means the Manawatu District has 39.4 percent of its population involved – the best by a local authority nationally and ahead of Central Hawke’s Bay District (28.5 percent) and Wellington City (23.2 percent).

The Ministry of Civil Defence and Emergency Management aims to involve one million New Zealanders in the “Drop, Cover and Hold” exercise, with 593,393 already on board.

The Manawatu numbers include 5848 children from 19 schools, 3367 employees from six businesses, 1071 people from the health and disability sector, 975 pre-schoolers and 126 individuals or families.

Manawatu District Emergency Management Officer Ross Brannigan was pleased that Manawatu’s effort indicated such a strong buy-in and said other regional areas like Ruapehu, Rangitikei, Wanganui, Palmerston North, Tararua and Horowhenua were also reporting excellent  interest.

Mr Brannigan said the exercise was based on the annual Great California Shakeout drill that began in 2008 and it was up to participants as to what they wanted to do on the day.

He said the MDC would be taking part in the drill and then follow up with an activation of its Emergency Operations Centre. This would allow Civil Defence staff to take the opportunity to test emergency procedures and systems together with partner agencies and the emergency services.

“The whole intention is to get people used to doing these sorts of drills from time to time so they become fully aware of taking such actions when an emergency does happen. It’s been proven through the Californian experience that by regularly practising such exercises, people have much more awareness on the right action to take during an earthquake event.”

Mr Brannigan said the “drop, cover and hold” option had proven to be the best and safest actions to take during an earthquake.

“New Zealand Shakeout is timely in view of the Christchurch experience and it’s good to hear more and more people talking about the exercise. It can be done with a bit of fun, but has a serious message.

“Schools for instance will be participating in the drill and a lot are doing some curriculum work around it, and using the drill as a launch pad to do some study into earthquakes and what we should do to keep ourselves safe.”

Mr Brannigan said the drill provided the MDC a chance to work with its emergency service partners in full exercise mode.

“But the main and most important purpose of the exercise is to raise awareness so people instinctively know what actions to take when an earthquake strikes, and to reinforce those actions,” he said.