Not too late to sign up for ShakeOut

21 September 2012

With less than a week to go, more than 37,000 Hamilton residents have signed up for ShakeOut, the biggest earthquake drill in New Zealand’s history.

ShakeOut happens on Wednesday, 26 September, at 9.26am, and lasts just one minute. The exercise aims to make New Zealanders aware of the “Drop, Cover, Hold” approach to an earthquake – drop to the ground, take cover under a table or desk, and hold the position until the tremors stop.

Councillor Pippa Mahood, Hamilton City Council’s Civil Defence representative, says it’s not too late for Hamiltonians to be part of ShakeOut.

“Registration for ShakeOut can be done online, at www.shakeout.govt.nz – it takes only a couple of minutes,” says Cr Mahood. “More than 1.1 million New Zealanders have already signed up, but we want to grow the number of participants over the next few days.”

Cr Mahood says many of the city’s schools are already signed up, and businesses can really benefit from participating in ShakeOut: “The Canterbury experience has shown getting businesses up and running is absolutely crucial to recovery from an earthquake, so we want our local companies to get involved – it’s only one minute in the working day, and ‘Drop, Cover, Hold’ could save staff members’ lives if an earthquake hits.”

For more information on ShakeOut, visit www.shakeout.govt.nz, www.gethru.govt.nz, or follow ShakeOut on Facebook (NZ Get Thru) and Twitter (@NZGetThru).

ENDS

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