Earthquake and severe weather event put emergency response plans to the test

This week’s earthquake and severe weather events are a reminder to us all that you can never be too prepared in an emergency.

Mayor K Gurunathan says the Kāpiti Coast community responded well to the earthquake events during the early hours of Monday morning.

“It is times like these when emergency preparedness comes to the fore and I congratulate everyone that took action, especially those living in low lying beach areas who applied the general rule of thumb that if you feel a long or strong earthquake head to higher ground immediately.”

Kāpiti Coast District Council’s Emergency Operations Centre swung into action as fast as it could and staff worked through the night to assess and respond to the situation as events unfolded.

“This was a true test of all the work our response teams have put into preparing for a large earthquake event but our work is not over yet with aftershocks continuing and the unsavoury weather causing further disruption,” Mayor Gurunathan says.

“We know we have some work to do to ensure people know what to do and where to access information in an emergency and we will be working with our partner organisations to improve this.

“This includes having another look at whether tsunami warning sirens are a good option for us once we’ve recovered from today’s weather events.”