Exercise Rūaumoko tests our earthquake response

This week some of our people in Wellington, Nelson-Marlborough, Canterbury, Mid-South Canterbury and the West Coast took part in Exercise Rūaumoko.

Our SimEx ran on Wednesday and Thursday, and simulated our response to the aftermath of an 8.2 magnitude earthquake along the Alpine Fault.

It tied in with the Civil Defence Emergency Management Canterbury-led Exercise Pandora, which took placed on Thursday and had support from many other organisations, including Hato Hone St John, NZ Police, Te Whatu Ora, NZ Defence Force.

Fire and Emergency’s Te Ihu Region stood up it’s Regional Coordination Centre as well as three Local Coordination Centres. The National Coordination Centre in Wellington was also activated to provide support.

Thursday’s events also saw liaison officers deployed to the various Civil Defence Emergency Operation Centres that had been activated.

Te Ihu Planning and Performance Manager Karl Patterson says the dual SimEx enabled Fire and Emergency personnel to test their skills across two days, interacting with a wide range of stakeholders and agencies, particularly during the Civil Defence-led scenario on Thursday.

“A key part of this exercise was working with other agencies as we would be doing for an event like this.

“We have already identified areas of improvement and better ways of working internally, as well as with our external partner agencies, and will be able to implement this for future events so we are better prepared for what we expect to be facing.”

Scientific research indicates there is a 75% probability of an Alpine Fault earthquake occurring in the next 50 years, and there is a 4 out of 5 chance that it will be a magnitude 8+ event.

This will need a coordinated multi-agency national response and include international support.