Hon Nikki Kaye
Minister of Civil Defence
13 October 2015
Two days to go to national earthquake drill
On the eve of the national ShakeOut earthquake drill at 9.15am on Thursday 15 October, Civil Defence Minister Nikki Kaye
is urging as many people as possible to sign up and take part.
“Last night we had a timely reminder that New Zealand isn’t called the shaky isles for no reason, with a 5.8 magnitude
quake just east of Pongaroa.
“On average, we have around one earthquake every half hour in New Zealand, or 20,000 earthquakes a year. Around 250 of
these are large and close enough to feel.
“More than 1.25 million people are already signed up for ShakeOut, but many more are expected to participate on the day.
“At 9.15am on Thursday, I want every New Zealander to drop, cover and hold, which is the best thing to do during an
earthquake to save lives and reduce your risk of injury.
“I believe we are on-track to reach our target of 1.5 million people participating on Thursday morning. There’s still
plenty of time to sign up on the ShakeOut website, at www.shakeout.govt.nz.
“There’s been a huge amount of activity since we launched ShakeOut 2015 in April, with social media and other
advertising, and schools, businesses, organisations and individuals signing up across New Zealand.
“The final two days are seeing this activity step up a notch. This morning, electronic reminder notices began being
displayed on motorways across the country.
“I can also confirm that I’ve contacted Civil Defence and Emergency Management teams nationwide, who are working hard
contacting people and encouraging them to sign up.
“Since 2012, when we last held a national earthquake drill, we recognise that more people are using social media. I’m
pleased to acknowledge the support of Facebook, who have come onboard and over the next 48 hours will be helping to
alert New Zealanders to the drill. They’ll be promoting posts to New Zealand Facebook accounts to encourage people to
take part.
“While Thursday is a drill, we never know when we may have to drop, cover and hold for real. That’s why this drill is so
important.
“By making drop, cover and hold our instinctive reaction as soon as we feel shaking start, we can give ourselves a much
greater chance of getting through an earthquake unscathed.”
ends