Get ready for any emergency

16 September 2014

Are you ready for anything? Next week is national Civil Defence Get Ready Week – a time to check how ready you, your family or your business is to manage in an emergency.

The theme of this year’s Get Ready Week, 21-27 September, is ‘What would you do?’. It’s a reminder that disaster can strike any time, when people are at home, at work or travelling and may need to survive on their own for up to three days.

Bay of Plenty Regional Manager of Civil Defence Emergency Management Clinton Naude said because of its location and environment, New Zealand faced many potential disasters.

“With some, such as storms or volcanic eruption, there may be time for a warning, but others such as earthquakes, or tsunami close to land may happen without any warning. Everyone needs to be prepared to handle an emergency at any time,” he said.

“This is the time to check your family’s emergency plan and make sure everyone knows what to do. Check what’s in your emergency kit, replace water or food that may be dated, make sure your business’s emergency plans are up to date. The aim is to get people thinking about what they would do in an emergency if it happened while they were going about their daily lives, at home, at work or out and about.”

During this week, there will be displays at local council offices and participating agencies and a number of alerting, warning and communication tools will be tested.

The Bay of Plenty’s text and email alerting systems will be tested on Sunday, 28 September at 10am with a mass text and email sent to those who have already signed up for the alerts. Anyone can sign up for free on Bay of Plenty Civil Defence Emergency Management’s webpage, www.bopcivildefence.govt.nz

“We hope that everyone will take a moment during next week to think about what they would do in any type of emergency, and check that they have everything they need to keep safe for a few days,” Mr Naude said.

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