Media Release Archive

From Monday (31 May 2010) people might hear electronic civil defence emergency alarms on their radios.

Statistics New Zealand’s General Social Survey, released today, shows that 15% of households are prepared for a natural disaster, i.e. they have enough food and water stored to last three days, and they have an emergency plan.

New Zealand’s tsunami risk management programme has taken another step forward with the announcement today of a revised national Tsunami Advisory and Warning Plan.

The Ministry of Civil Defence & Emergency Management has added a Twitter feed to the emergency status bar on its website www.civildefence.govt.nz .

Thirty years ago, on Wednesday 8 August 1979, New Zealand’s biggest urban landslide hit Abbotsford in Dunedin.

In the last few weeks Waihi Village was evacuated because of a threatened landslide, Wellington rail and road links were closed by slips, tornadoes struck Kaitaia and Opunake, heavy rain caused flooding in Gisborne district and a large earthquake, followed by aftershocks, occurred in Fiordland.

The purchase of an electronic emergency management information system (EMIS) for the National Crisis Management Centre (NCMC) has come a step closer today with the issuing of registration of interest (ROI) documentation.

A formal “Administrative Arrangement” between the Ministry of Civil Defence & Emergency Management and the Attorney-General’s Department of Australia has helped create better links between New Zealand’s and Australia’s national emergency management agencies.

The first anniversary of the Wenchuan earthquake, which claimed more than 70,000 lives and displaced 5 million people, will be marked at a New Zealand Society for Earthquake Engineering (NZSEE) presentation at Victoria University at the exact time of the earthquake on Tuesday May 12.

The earthquake that has struck the Abruzzo region of Italy is a tragic reminder that New Zealanders need to be prepared for earthquakes here.