It is up to you to make sure your whānau know what to do in an emergency and that you all have what you need to get through. Here are some easy pointers to help you get ready.
Talk about the impacts
Understanding the impacts of an emergency can help you get through. Have a chat with your household and work out what you would do in these situations.
Stuck at home
Being stuck at home may mean being without power and water or any way to get supplies for five days or more. Do you have enough food and water? What about whānau who need medication? Do you have enough food and water for your pets as well?
Can’t get home
In an emergency, public transport may not run, and roads and neighbourhoods may be blocked off. If you can’t take your normal route home, how will you get there? Who will you go with? Where will you meet if your street is a no-go zone?
Have to evacuate
Some houses, streets and neighbourhoods may not be safe to stay in or you may have to leave home in a hurry. If your street is evacuated, where will you go? What will you take? What about your pets? Do your neighbours need help?
No power
What would you do if the power was out for days? How would you see, cook or keep warm? Power cuts could affect EFTPOS and ATM machines. Have some cash at home and enough supplies to see you through five days or more.
No phone or internet
What would you do if the phone and internet lines go down? How will you keep in touch, arrange to meet or keep up with the news and weather alerts? In most emergencies, it is best to stay at home. Make your home your meeting place and have an alternative in case you can’t get there.
In an emergency, you may be stuck at home for five days or more. Figure out what supplies you need and make a plan to work out what you need to get through.
At home
You probably have most of the things you need already. You don’t have to have them all in one place, but you might have to find them in a hurry and/or in the dark.
* Water for five days or more — make sure you have at least nine litres of water for every person. This will be enough for drinking and basic hygiene
* Long-lasting food that doesn’t need cooking (unless you have a camping stove or gas barbecue) and food for babies and pets
* Toilet paper and large plastic buckets for an emergency toilet
* Work gloves and a properly-fitted P2 or N95 mask.
If you have special dietary needs, make sure you have enough to last five days at home, as well as some in your grab bag. If you have to evacuate, emergency shelters may not have the food that you need.
You and your neighbours can help each other by sharing supplies too. By looking after yourself and your household, you'll also be helping emergency services focus their limited resources on the people who need the most help.
In a grab bag
Have grab bags ready for everyone in your family. A grab bag is a small bag with essential supplies.
Each bag should have:
* Walking shoes, warm clothes, raincoat and hat
* Water and snack food (remember babies and pets too)
* Hand sanitiser
* Portable phone charger
* Cash
* Copies of important documents and photo ID
Remember any medications you might need and keep your first aid kit, mask or face covering, torch, radio and batteries somewhere you can grab them in a hurry.
In your car
Plan ahead for what you will do if you are in your car when an emergency happens. A flood, snow storm or major traffic accident could leave you stranded in your vehicle for some time.
Keep essential emergency survival items in your car. If you are driving in extreme winter conditions, add:
* a brush
* a shovel
* tire chains
* windshield scrapers, and
* warm clothing.
Store a pair of walking shoes, a waterproof jacket, essential medicines, snack food, water, a phone charger lead and a torch in your car. Keep up to date with weather and road information when planning travel.
MAKE A PLAN
Emergencies can happen anytime, anywhere, and often without warning. It is important to make emergency plans so you know what to do when an emergency happens.
Make a household emergency plan
A household emergency plan lets everyone in your household know what to do in an emergency and how to get ready. Having a plan helps make actual emergency situations less stressful.
Make a plan with your whānau to get through an emergency. Think about the things you need every day and work out what you would do if you didn't have them.
Make sure your home emergency plan also lines up with emergency plans for your work, school, and other places where you spend a lot of time.
Fill in the form below then print it out, stick it on the fridge and make sure everyone knows the plan. Or save it as a PDF and email it to your whānau.
Before you start
Make sure you have considered all the needs of your household including:
· disabled people
· babies and young children
· pets and other animals
Get started
Do you prefer to hand write your emergency plan? Download and print the PDF paper version of the Make a Plan template in English or Te Reo Māori.
English Household Preparedness Plan
Māori Household Preparedness Plan
Every household’s plan will be different because of where we live, who lives with us and who might need our help. When you are making your household plan remember to include everyone. Think about the requirements of disabled people, older people, babies, young children, pets and other animals.
Help your friends, family and community get prepared for emergencies. Make a community emergency plan so you can help each other in an emergency. Talking with other people in your community is one of the best ways to prepare for emergencies.
Get to know your neighbours
When you get to know your neighbours, you are more likely to look out for each other, especially during and after an emergency, like a storm or a large earthquake.
Swap contact details so you can get in touch in an emergency. Tell them about your emergency plan and ask them about their plans. Find out who can help you and who might need your help.
Join the Gisborne Neighbourhood Support Group
Join the Gisborne Neighbourhood Support Group. You and your neighbours can share skills and resources to help you get through in an emergency. Neighbourhood Support Groups bring people together to create safe, supportive and connected communities.
Gisborne Neighbourhood Support Group
Become a community patroller
Join a Community Patrol. Get involved with community patrols and help make your community safer. These patrols work with New Zealand Police, local council and their community during an emergency event.
Make connections in your neighbourhood
Neighbours Aotearoa (formerly Neighbours Day Aotearoa) is held every March. It encourages neighbours to get to know each other. It doesn't matter if you're an individual, group or organisation, or if your neighbourhood consists of houses, flats, business or something else entirely. You can host an event tailored specifically to your neighbourhood.
Make a community emergency plan
A community emergency plan can help your community understand how you can help each other in an emergency. Talking with other people in your community is one of the best ways to prepare for emergencies.
There will be some groups of people or networks already in your community.
These could be:
* Civil Defence Emergency Management - TEMO
* Gisborne Neighbourhood Support Group
* Volunteer, church and sports groups
* Schools
* Marae
* Service organisations.
Make contact with them and find out what they are doing. In an emergency, they may help with basic supplies and coordinating support efforts.
Contact your Civil Defence Emergency Management Group to see if there is already a community emergency plan for your area. They can work with you to identify strengths, resources, risks and solutions to help your community get through an emergency.
Get involved
Help keep your family, friends and community safe by getting involved in emergency preparedness.
In an emergency, you can be stuck at work, without transport home. Make a personal workplace emergency plan including how you will get home safely. Emergencies can happen anytime, including during business hours. You can’t predict when they will happen, but you can take actions to make your business more prepared.
Identify the risks to your business and staff
Find out what the risks are and how they can impact on your business. Risks include natural hazards, health emergencies and utility failures. Talk to staff about the risks they think are most relevant to your business.
Make an emergency plan for your business
Businesses have an obligation to be prepared for an emergency. In most cases we can’t predict when an emergency will happen but we can make plans to make sure staff are safe, financial and personal losses are reduced and everyone is able to get back to business as soon as possible.
Your plan should include the following -
* Emergency procedures for fire, earthquake, tsunami and other hazards
* Assembly points, wardens and first aid training
* How to contact staff, suppliers, clients and insurance providers
* Alternative arrangements if you are unable to access your premises, files, etc
Talk to your disabled staff. Find out what support they might need if there's an emergency. Also think about how you might need to help any visitors who have a disability.
Look after your staff
As an employer, you have a duty of care to your staff, including caring for them during and after emergencies. Start by involving your staff in identifying risks and making an emergency plan. Talk to them about what they, and their whānau, would need to get through an emergency.
Make sure your staff have personal workplace emergency plans so they know who to contact at work in an emergency and have a plan to get home safely.
In an emergency, your staff may be stuck at work or unable to take transport home for a day or more. Make sure you have enough supplies for everyone onsite for five days. This should include for visitors too.
Rural communities, businesses and individuals need to adapt and build resilience to emergencies. Your animals are your responsibility. You need to include them in your emergency planning and preparation. Failing to plan for them puts lives at risk.
Preparing animals for emergencies
If an emergency happened today, do you have a plan in place to save yourself, your family, and your animals? Learn how to prepare to ensure the welfare of your animals during a disaster, such as an earthquake or flood.
Include animals in your emergency plans
Your animals are your responsibility. You need to include them in your emergency planning and preparation. Prepare an emergency plan that covers the major disasters that could affect animals in your family, farm, or workplace.
Discuss your plan, record it, and practice it with your family and co-workers. Keep your plan somewhere it can be easily seen. In your household, this could be on the fridge or by the front door. In a farm or animal facility, this could be kept in a dairy shed, stable, or shearing shed.
The Ministry for Primary Industries has an extensive library of resources you can use, from checklists to planning guides.
Make sure your animals can be identified
During an emergency, you could become separated from your pets and farm animals. Make sure your animals can be easily identified so you can be reunited.
Pet identification tips
* Add an ID tag to your pet’s collar. Put as much information on the tag that will fit – your pet's name along with your name, phone number, and address
* Make sure your pets are microchipped and registered
* Dogs should be wearing their current registration tag
* On relevant microchip databases, keep the information about you and the animal up to date. Include next of kin or someone outside your household.
NZ Companion Animal Register
Livestock and horse identification tips
* For livestock, ensure your National Animal Identification and Tracing (NAIT) programme details are up-to-date
* For large animals, like horses, add a tag to their halter, lead, or cover
* Make sure horses are microchipped and registered.
Extra animal identification tips
* Store a current photograph of your pets and horses in a waterproof container. Include notes on any distinguishing features, name, sex, age, colour, and breed. Also include a photograph of you and your animals together to help prove ownership if you get separated.
* Save information online like microchip details, photographs, medical, veterinary, and contacts. For example, you could store it on Dropbox, a mobile phone, or an email account.
Plan for every type of emergency
* Fire: Plan how you will get your animals away from the fire zone and where you will go
* Earthquake: Arrange who will check on your animals after an earthquake
* Extreme weather: Know what to do if there's a storm coming or plan for dry conditions or droughts
* Volcanic eruption: Consider how far away you need to get and where you will go
* Floods and tsunamis: Decide how you and your animals will get to higher ground.
Prepare emergency kits for you and your animals
Check the kits regularly and keep them within easy reach. You might use these if help is not readily available, or before you can get to a veterinary clinic.
Have copies and backups of necessary documents and records.
You need three kits
1. Home emergency kit with enough supplies for five days.
2. Getaway emergency kit with supplies for moving yourself and your animals.
3. Animal first aid kit – put first aid supplies for your animals with your own kit.
First Aid Kit for Animals Checklist
Groups who can help
Federated Farmers may be able to provide advice if you need assistance with evacuating your livestock and finding a safe shelter place to contain them.
The Rural Support Trust are also a great source of information.
Schools play a large role in keeping the community safe. Find out about school responsibilities and ensuring students have the knowledge and skills they need to be more prepared for an emergency.
Your school or early childhood centre may face an emergency so it is important to be prepared for emergency events and know how to respond appropriately. Early learning services and schools should have an emergency management plan for all hazards they may face.
The Ministry of Education has advice and guidelines to help you prepare your school or early childhood education centre on preparing for, and responding to, emergencies.
Know your school's responsibilities
It is important to be prepared for emergency events and know how to respond. Early learning centres and schools should have an emergency management plan for all hazards they may face. The Ministry of Education has advice and guidelines to help you prepare your school for emergencies (see links above).
Teach emergency preparedness
Find information and resources for teaching students about emergency preparedness and natural hazards.
Talk to children about earthquakes
We encourage teachers to talk to children about earthquakes to help reduce fear and anxiety. Encourage children to ask questions. Give them an opportunity to express their feelings by talking or drawing. Remind them that earthquakes can be frightening but that it will get better and there will be people around to help.
Explain to them than an earthquake is when the ground shakes because rocks deep under the ground are moving and that when a big earthquake happens there may be a loud rumbling noise. Things can start falling down around you. It might also be hard to stand up. You have to act quickly and protect yourself from things that might fall on you.
Turtle Safe | Kia Haumaru Honu Mai
Use our turtle safe video in your early childhood centres to help teach children the correct action to take in an earthquake. This video is available in English and Te Reo Māori. There is a downloadable lyric worksheet that can be used alongside the video.
Turtle Safe - an educational video that teaches young children what to do in an earthquake
Remember how a turtle gets into its shell to keep safe? Here’s what you can do.
* If you are inside, quickly get under a table, and hold on to the table legs (if you can) so the table doesn't move away from you. Stay there until the shaking stops and you are told it is safe to come out by an adult.
* If you are outside or there are no tables around, take no more than three steps away from things that can fall on you. Drop, Cover and Hold.
* Remember there may be more shaking.
Practice your earthquake drill: Drop, Cover and Hold.
Download the lyrics for the Turtle Safe video in English and Te Reo Maori
Turtle Safe lyrics in Te Reo Maori
Download and print these fun colouring pages of Stan and the IMPACT kids getting ready for an emergency.
What's the Plan Stan? Colouring Pages
Get ready at work
Emergencies generally don’t keep any set hours so you need to make sure you have plans that cover your life – work, home and school.
· Identify the risks to your business and staff
Find out what the risks are and how they can impact your business. This could include natural hazards, health emergencies and utility failures.
Here’s a link to help identify risks at work from business.govt.nz –
