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Waimarama all shaken up

The 26 primary school children who make up the entire roll of tiny Waimarama School were among the more than 50,000 Hawke’s Bay residents who took part in Thursday’s ShakeOut.

And those pupils took it very seriously; dropping, covering and holding like professionals.

But the school did not stop there; given its close proximity to the sea and therefore its increased risk in a tsunami, the school added on an evacuation exercise, shepherding the children up what they call “tsunami hill”.

The school had a real earthquake expert on hand too.  Teacher Jude Hateley had lived through both Christchurch earthquakes. She told the children she never went to bed without putting her shoes and a torch beside the bed.

During both the major earthquakes she was at her sister’s home in Christchurch, rather than at her Akaroa home. She clearly remembers the earthquakes sounding “like a steam train coming”.

“And the glass, it was everywhere. I was screeching at everyone to put their shoes on and we were trying to stop the dog running around in the glass” - hence always having her shoes within grabbing distance.

Hawke’s Bay Civil Defence Emergency Management Group Manager Ian Macdonald reported that 50,369 Hawke’s Bay people signed up on-line to be part of the global earthquake preparedness exercise. That tipped over the record 50,000 regional organisers were hoping for.

Across New Zealand more than 1.3 million people leapt under desks or doorways or dropped to the ground as sirens went off at 9.15am.

The number of schools taking part in the Bay was especially pleasing, said Mr Macdonald.

“We had more than 31,000 school children taking part, along with over five thousand pre-schoolers,” says Mr Macdonald.

Hastings District Council emergency management officer Alan Daly said the Waimarama community strongly supports its civil defence  and rural fire personnel. A plan specific to Waimarama, given its proximity to the sea and its isolation, is a priority for the Waimarama Civil Defence team.

“They understand the relevance of planning for events such as earthquake and tsunami and Thursday’s ShakeOut was an opportunity for the school to go through what would likely happen in a real event” Mr Daly said.

Waimarama School was not the only one to add a tsunami evacuation to their drill; the staff of the Hawke’s Bay Regional Council also took off to higher ground, either in nearby Tiffen Park or up to the second floor of the council building. It had been assessed as a safe option in a tsunami alert.

Mr Macdonald says anybody living or working along the coast during a strong earthquake that makes it hard to stand up, or a weak rolling earthquake that lasts a minute or more, should move immediately to the nearest high ground, or as far inland as possible.

4 October 2017

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