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Be prepared

When a disaster strikes, it is important that you are prepared in all aspects of your life.

Make sure you can get safely through a disaster at home, at school, in your community and at work.

At home

There is a lot you can do to prepare you and your family for a disaster. Making a plan for what you will do and ensuring you have enough food and water for three days or more are two simple steps you can start today.

Household plan

Making a plan before an emergency will help you work out what to do when a disaster happens.

The plan should be made with all members in your household and you should let family and close friends know about your plan so they know where and how to contact you if you need to leave your home.

Things to include in your household plan are:

  • What you will each do in the event of a disaster
  • How and where you will meet up during and after a disaster
  • Who will pick up the children
  • What you need to do for members of the household, family or community with a disability or special requirement
  • What you will need to do for your pets, domestic animals or livestock
  • What local radio stations to tune in to for civil defence information during an event

Start your Household Plan(external link) today.

At work

If a disaster happens while you are at work, you will need to think about how you will get home and reach your loved ones. If you own or run a business, think about how to look after your staff, and how you will keep your business running.

Resilient business logoBusinesses, both large and small, often do too little, too late, to prepare themselves for the unexpected. Failure to plan can be disastrous. At best you risk losing customers while you’re getting your business back on its feet. At worst your business may never recover and ultimately cease trading.   

Resilient Business(external link) is about providing the tools to make it simpler for businesses to maintain continuity through a crisis or emergency. And the good news is, it’s not as hard as you think.

Being a Resilient Business is not an insurance policy against the consequences of a disaster but it does have the capacity to determine whether businesses remain operational during an unexpected event. 

The Resilient Business website provides user-friendly tools for the business community to adopt effective resilience strategies appropriately tailored for the size of the business. Designed and implemented through an Auckland Council initiative, this is the culmination of a collaborative and coordinated approach; a website by business for business.

At school

At school Christchurch City Council provides an education programme called Stan's Got a Plan to supplement the delivery of CDEM education in the classroom.

For school leaders

It's important for early childhood education services and schools to have a plan and be prepared for an emergency event. The Ministry of Education provides lots of useful resources(external link) to get you started.

Stan's Got a Plan programme

Stan the dogThe 'Stan’s Got a Plan' programme can be used to launch or summarise a classroom disaster studies module.

The programme is:

  • Linked to the New Zealand Curriculum, including the 'What’s the Plan Stan?' resource produced by the Ministry of Civil Defence & Emergency Management
  • Supportive of the inquiry process
  • Guided by experienced educators
  • Free

Focus your ‘Stan’s Got a Plan’ experience by choosing from earthquakes, flooding, pandemic, tsunami or storms.

Programmes are offered for years 1 to 3, years 4 to 6 and years 7 to 8. For further information, contact us on 03 941 8999 or email LTA@ccc.govt.nz.

Book a Stan's Got a Plan school learning programme

Book

In your community

Talk to your community about how you could respond and help each other during an emergency.

  • Get to know your neighbours
  • Share your "in case of an emergency" contact details with your neighbours so they know how to contact you in an emergency
  • Ask your neighbours about their household plan and tell them about yours
  • Get involved with your local community groups
  • Discuss with your community group what you could do to support your community during an emergency and consider making a plan.

Things your community group could consider include;

  • A description of your community
  • What are the hazards faced by your community?
  • A description of what your community can do together to help each other during an emergency. Consider what the strengths are in your community;
  • Identify where the community will meet in an emergency, and how to evacuate, if necessary
    • What community groups exist in your area
    • How do people connect and communicate
    • Where do people like to meet

If your community group would like assistance email us at civildefence@ccc.govt.nz