Earthquakes, when disaster strikes are you ready?

Disasters strike, often without warning and having a prior plan in place gives you the ability to react quickly and minimize stress and damage.

 Living in Piha on the wild West Auckland Coast we have a disaster plan for each type of potential disaster.  We regularly watch the water funnels (the sea tornados) forming off the coast, Tsunamis, high wind storms and lack of power are emergencies we are always on alert for as well.  With a number of potential disasters, we have developed separate disaster plans for each type of potential disaster. 

 The first step in the plan was to include places we could go if our house was no longer inhabitable that the whole family knows and means of contact if the family gets separated. 

 We also have created a disaster emergency kit. Our kit includes clothing, pillows and blankets, torches, batteries, bottled water, non-perishable food, a can opener, utensils, candles, toiletries, and a first-aid kit. If you have a pet, don’t forget to include pet food.  Civil Defence has an excellent toolkit on customizing and developing your own personal plan and emergency kit.

In case we are not in Piha, we keep an addition emergency kit in our self storage unit. We know we can access your storage unit when we need to if home is no longer an option. In addition our kit we keep photocopies of important documents, such as home insurance documents, health insurance documents, and important phone numbers, as well as spare home and car keys in our emergency kit.

The damage the earthquake in Kaikoura has just done is another example of how the forces of nature still retain the upper hand.