Monday

A woman is filling a water bottle and another woman is stocking a cabinet with medical supplies and other unmarked items

Monday: Get Household Ready

When disaster strikes, your life can become up-ended quickly. Follow these three steps to help keep your home and whānau keep safe in an emergency.

1. Know your hazards

Knowing your hazards is the first step to becoming ready for an emergency.

Our region’s landscapes are beautiful, but they can also experience many natural hazards such as earthquakes, flooding, landslides, and tsunami.

Tsunami

All of our region’s coastline is at risk of tsunami.

Find out if you live, work or play in a tsunami zone.

Remember, if you are in a tsunami zone and feel an earthquake that is Long OR Strong, Get Gone! Evacuate to higher ground or as far inland as possible once the shaking stops.

Tsunami Maps

Floods

Parts of our region are also at risk of flooding. Floods are the most frequently occurring natural hazard in the Wellington region. Greater Wellington estimates 80,000 buildings and 200,000 people are living in flood prone areas across the region.

You can find out if you live in an area prone to river flooding by visiting the Greater Wellington Flood Hazards Map.

No flood hazard map for your area? That doesn’t mean it’s not at risk of flooding. Urban/surface flooding could be a risk. Your local council may have more information available.

You could be at risk if you live near the coast, any river or stream. If you live on a street with a name like Water Street or Swamp Road that suggests flooding might have happened there in the past.

River Flooding Map

2. Make a Household Plan

In an emergency, such as an earthquake, communication networks are likely to fail and prevent you from connecting with your loved ones. It is possible that many of your most important assets (property, car, furniture etc) could be damaged or destroyed.

Having a basic plan in place will keep you safer, let you connect with your loved ones faster and protect some of your most important assets.

Check out our editable household plan template.

Household Plan

3. Store Emergency Supplies

After a major emergency such as a large earthquake our water network will be broken and damaged roads will make access to supermarkets difficult.

Ensure you have emergency supplies such as food and water to last at least 7 days to help get you through a major disaster.

Emergency Water

Emergency water is the single best thing you can store to be more prepared for a major earthquake. We recommend storing 20 litres per person, per day for seven days - thats 140L per person in your household! Any amount of water you can store will help.

Store Emergency Water

Emergency Food

Ideally, you can be self-sufficient for seven days. However, don't forget neighbours can help each other out by sharing resources, such as gas for a camping stove.

Check out our advice for storing an emergency food supply as well as the supplies we recommend having.

Store Emergency Food

Tuesday: Get Work Ready

Do you have a plan for if something happened while you were at work and you couldn’t get home?

Go to 'Get Work Ready'