At 9:26 AM tomorrow morning more than 1.2 million people will take part in the first preparative exercise of its kind. All of them will run for protection under the nearest shelter and cover their heads simultaneously.
The director of Civil Defence Emergency Management, John Hamilton said, “We are delighted with the response and it would be great to have a record of how people and workplaces made it their own drill.”
People can upload their thoughts, videos and pictures from the event to www.shakeout.govt.nz.
Hamilton went on to say, “Immediately after the drill is a good time for people to stop and talk about the drill – what they did, what might happen in a real earthquake, talk about their preparedness and also consider other emergencies.”
“We would also love to hear from people about what they did for New Zealand ShakeOut, and to send us pictures.”
Civil Defence has put together a prompt sheet for discussion available on their website.
In addition to earthquake preparation, Hamilton said that a lot of the safety procedures to be practiced with ShakeOut are similar to those for other emergency situations.
“As well as practicing the right thing to do in an earthquake, we are encouraging people to look at their emergency preparedness in more detail, at home and at work.”
Roughly 20,000 earthquakes are registered each year in New Zealand. 200 of which are strong enough to be felt.
Image via Getty.
