Emergency Preparedness
KAURAKA E MATAKŪ, KIA TAKATŪ!
Don’t be scared, be prepared.
Whakaritea tō kāika mō te ohotata
Get your household ready for an emergency
Emergencies happen. It is important that your whole whānau know and agree on what to do when disasters disrupt essential services, and affect your ability travel or communicate with each other.
Here are some general tips to get yourself and your whānau prepared in case of an emergency where you may need to stay home, or forced to evacuate your whare.
- Develop a Whānau Emergency Plan. Get your whānau together and discuss what you will each do in the event of different emergency situations. You can use the plan below. Here are some prompts for you to think of when creating your whānau emergency plan.
- Store emergency survival items, and have an emergency ‘Go Bag’ that you can easily grab when you need to evacuate your home quickly.
- Learn basic first aid.
- Find out potential hazards and emergency warning systems in your area.
- Ensure you have clean drinking water and food for at least three days.
- Make sure you have considered the needs of your household including medication needs of any whānau member, formula or food for pēpi and tamariki.
- Remember to include your pets in the plan.
- Think about how you will communicate with your whānau if phone lines are down.
- Have an evacuation plan. Agree on a meeting place with your whānau in case you are not able to go home.
- Keep some cash with you for when you are not able to pay electronically or when ATMs are down.

Stay informed during an emergency
One of the best things you can do to get emergency-prepared is to know where you can find up-to-date information. During an emergency response, the local Civil Defence Emergency Management will broadcast information about the situation and available support via the internet, television and radio. For example, Civil Defence Emergency Management will broadcast if a Civil Defence Centre with support services for people that need help has been set up and where it’s located.