Are We Prepared For The Big One
There’s been a bit of shaking going on around the Southern Lakes of late and while it all seems to have settled down for now many are asking, ‘Are we prepared for the big one?’
Emergency Management Advisor for Queenstown Lakes, former Police officer Dave Grimes sure hopes so, and is doing his best to prepare the whole region in the event of any natural disaster.
While the normal recommendation in the event of a major disaster is to have three to seven days food and water stored at home, Grimes says this district’s geography bumps that up significantly. “We’re saying have 14 to 21 days food and water stored here.”
He says there’s a real likelihood that the Wakatipu could be cut off in the event of a major event whether that be an earthquake on the alpine fault or any other form of natural disaster.
“It’s not just our roading networks, although even on a good day there could be rockfall on the Crown Range, the Kawarau Gorge or the Devil’s Staircase,” he says. “It doesn’t take much to get rockfall on the staircase and it could take some time to get that cleared and get supply trucks in,” he says.
The Wakatipu’s power comes via pylons through the Kawarau Gorge: “One of those is right on top of the Nevis Bluff,” he says. There’s a considerable risk that in the event of something major this area could potentially be isolated, especially if a big alpine fault event hits, he says.
Grimes says locals need to be ready and resilient to get through any natural disaster of that magnitude and not rely on emergency services to be able to do it all for them. “If we had a large earthquake, or any disaster, our emergency services would be overwhelmed dealing with the catastrophe,” he says. “I was a Police officer in Christchurch during the (February 2011) earthquake and we were overwhelmed, but what struck us was the resilience and readiness of the communities. They’d obviously already been through the September Darfield quake so were out in their communities helping each other,” he says.
Everyone should have a household plan.” Many locals commute to or from work in Cromwell and Alexandra. What’s your plan if you can’t get home?” Grimes says commuters should have a ‘grab bag’ ready and carry that with them in their vehicle each day, just in case.
He says Queenstown Lakes already has 18 brilliant, well organised Community Resilience Groups stretching from Glenorchy through to Makarora, all with assigned community emergency hubs where people can go for safety and information.
See here for your local hub: www.qldc.govt.nz/community/emergency-management/community-resilience-groups)
Queenstown is at risk of being ‘cut off’ by road, from power and communications lines, Grimes says, so these hubs are well set up with generators, and many have Starlink Minis. They have UHF radios and will be in constant communication with emergency response teams.
“These volunteers are incredible and really well set up for any emergency, but we can always do with more volunteers.”
Whatever the disaster whether it’s earthquakes, flooding, storms, landslides or wildfires, Grimes says the key is to be prepared.
And in the event of an earthquake don’t rush for the doorway, or outside, but ‘Drop, Cover and Hold’. Get beneath a sturdy table if possible.
Grimes will be sharing his insights on getting the community ready for natural disasters at the Citizen’s Advice Bureau’s AGM upstairs at Queenstown Events Centre on 2 September from 11am until 12pm.
See www.otagocdem.govt.nz/districts/queenstown-lakes for what to pack in your ‘grab bag’ and how to prepare.
Join Otago Gets Ready commbase.nz/join/otago which provides alerts to individual communities.
