As Aotearoa New Zealand faces weather events that have seen states of emergency declared and evacuations required, most recently in neighbouring Southland and Queenstown, there is much Central Otago residents can do to be prepared for similar emergencies.

The Central App sat down with Civil Defence Emergency Management Otago emergency management advisors Derek Shaw and Jacqui Lambeth to learn what we can all do to be ready for whatever life throws at us.

Derek said there was an abundance of information available online on the Central Otago District Council website and from Emergency Management New Zealand, but it was important people have a plan before an emergency occurs. 

“We rightly focus on significant earthquakes and things like that, but when you’re preparing for an earthquake, it’s also helping you prepare for those other things, like floods, and wildfires, and weather events.”

The first level of planning should be within families, he said.

“If you are individually and then prepared as a whanau, those are the building blocks for everyone. Individually, family, schools and businesses.”

Torches, radios and first aid kits should be in a place known to everyone, and getaway kits with warm clothes, snack food and water, essential medication and copies of important documents and photo ID will make life easier in an emergency if you have to leave home.

The Emergency Management publication, “What Would You Do?” provides advice and top tips for different scenarios. One such tip that Derek suggested is to put a layer of bottles filled with water in the bottom of a freezer, to keep food cool in a power outage and also be a source of clean drinking water if water sources are compromised.

“None of these things is a silver bullet,” he said.

“As much as we plan, there is always going to be a degree of something we haven’t thought of.”

Jacqui said it was important to discuss emergency plans as a family.

“Have a plan with your family and talk about it with your kids. Where are you going to meet up if something happens, are they going to come home and where are they going to go if they can’t come home. Trust in the plan.”

Lessons that were learned from the 2011 tsunami in Japan showed the importance of that, as many parents put themselves in danger by going home to look for their children, when the children were often already safe elsewhere.

“If you have everybody, including the young children, contributing to the plan and bringing their ideas into it, they all have that ownership,” Derek said. 

“They all do fire evacuation drills at school, so they know exactly what to do when the alarm goes. So, bring that into the house and have an evacuation drill."

Derek said Emergency Management leaned on the FENZ advice for changing smoke alarm batteries when daylight saving changes occurred, and that was a good time to check emergency kits also, that batteries were charged and to rotate any food that had use by dates.

This article missed the recent daylight saving change, but is a reminder to check your emergency kits if you have not done so recently.

If an emergency required evacuations, community hubs were conveniently placed around the district, he said.

There are also groups, both new and well-established, who would step up and offer assistance.

Queenstown was a good example of people needing to be evacuated, Jacqui said.

“I’m not sure that many, if any, of them had a ‘go bag’ by their front door, so they literally left with the clothes on their backs.  

Check out the Civil Defence tab on The Central App for more advice.