When disaster strikes, it may take time for help to arrive, so being prepared not only individually but also as a community, is vitally important.
Last month, the first Wakefield Rural Resilience Expo was hosted by the Wakefield Community Council and Fire and Emergency NZ at Higgins Heritage Park.
It was a cracker of a day, with the sun shining, vintage machinery providing rides and endless entertainment for the many children in attendance.
The theme was ‘stronger together’, with the goal of helping members of the Wakefield community learn more about how to prepare and support each other if a disaster like an earthquake, flooding or wildfire should hit. Twenty-eight exhibitors who all have a role to play in community resilience had displays.
Fire and Emergency NZ had an escape plan bouncy castle while Hato Hone St John showed off the new major incident support vehicle, and Civil Defence shared advice on what to include in your ‘grab bag’ and community emergency preparedness plans.
We ran an interactive activity on what to do in a wildfire, flood or earthquake.
At the time of an emergency, some communities may be cut off for longer periods of time, so it is important that everyone knows their neighbours, and has plans to help get through major events.
For more information about how you can prepare, visit getready.govt.nz(external link).