North Gears Up for National Tsunami Exercise

Dozens of Northlanders are gearing up to take part in ‘Exercise Tangaroa’ - a day-long national Civil Defence exercise centred on the approach of fictional tsunami generated by an earthquake off South America.

The Wednesday 20 October exercise has been more than 12 months in the planning and will involve direct participation from more than 90 local and national agencies.

Northland groups will include the Northland Regional Council, the Whangarei and Far North District Councils, fire, police and health workers, the Department of Conservation, community and welfare groups. Key infrastructural players like power companies, roading authorities and the Marsden Pt oil refinery will also participate.

Graeme MacDonald, a spokesman for the Northland Civil Defence Emergency Management Group, says organisers are not giving too much away ahead of the exercise, however, it will include both desktop and limited operational elements.

Locally, it will also include the activation of the region’s Emergency Operations Centres, as well as a welfare centre to deal with participants playing the part of those forced to “flee” their homes.

Mr MacDonald says Exercise Tangaroa will be the third national exercise held since 2006. The first -‘Exercise Capital Quake’ - took place in November 2006 and tested arrangements for responding to a fictional Wellington earthquake. The second – ‘Exercise Ruaumoko’ – was held in two phases from November 2007 to March 2008 and centred on a fictional Auckland eruption.

Mr MacDonald says the exercises provide Northland with useful opportunities to both refresh and test the skills of those who already respond to Civil Defence emergencies as well as offering a realistic and useful learning tool for new staff.

“The exercise is an opportunity to test interagency co-operation and coordination and to test agencies’ pre-planning and readiness arrangements.”

ENDS

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