Media Release Archive

Eruption screens on TV3 at 8:30pm tomorrow. It is a New Zealand-made drama that follows several Auckland families in the days before a volcanic eruption in their city.

The Ministry of Civil Defence & Emergency Management has signed a contract with New Zealand telecommunications company, TeamTalk, to build a new alternative communications network for the National Crisis Management Centre (NCMC).

Initial summary of New Zealand/Australian engineering visit to Chile

From Monday (31 May 2010) people might hear electronic civil defence emergency alarms on their radios.

Statistics New Zealand’s General Social Survey, released today, shows that 15% of households are prepared for a natural disaster, i.e. they have enough food and water stored to last three days, and they have an emergency plan.

New Zealand’s tsunami risk management programme has taken another step forward with the announcement today of a revised national Tsunami Advisory and Warning Plan.

The Ministry of Civil Defence & Emergency Management has added a Twitter feed to the emergency status bar on its website www.civildefence.govt.nz .

Thirty years ago, on Wednesday 8 August 1979, New Zealand’s biggest urban landslide hit Abbotsford in Dunedin.

In the last few weeks Waihi Village was evacuated because of a threatened landslide, Wellington rail and road links were closed by slips, tornadoes struck Kaitaia and Opunake, heavy rain caused flooding in Gisborne district and a large earthquake, followed by aftershocks, occurred in Fiordland.

The purchase of an electronic emergency management information system (EMIS) for the National Crisis Management Centre (NCMC) has come a step closer today with the issuing of registration of interest (ROI) documentation.

A formal “Administrative Arrangement” between the Ministry of Civil Defence & Emergency Management and the Attorney-General’s Department of Australia has helped create better links between New Zealand’s and Australia’s national emergency management agencies.

The first anniversary of the Wenchuan earthquake, which claimed more than 70,000 lives and displaced 5 million people, will be marked at a New Zealand Society for Earthquake Engineering (NZSEE) presentation at Victoria University at the exact time of the earthquake on Tuesday May 12.

The earthquake that has struck the Abruzzo region of Italy is a tragic reminder that New Zealanders need to be prepared for earthquakes here.

The Ministry of Civil Defence & Emergency Management is encouraging local authorities and other organisations to comment on draft Building Safety Evaluation Guidelines.

The Ministry of Civil Defence & Emergency Management announced today that it recorded 968 weather and geological events in 2008.

Maintaining strong international links is, necessarily, a priority for civil defence emergency management in New Zealand.

UNESCO led tsunami exercise, “Pacific Wave 2008” is an opportunity for the Ministry of Civil Defence & Emergency Management to train staff and test its response to Pacific tsunami bulletins.

A warning to people channel surfing tomorrow night or starting to watch Aftershock on TV3 part way through after its 8.30pm start. The programme includes acted “news bulletins” and “interviews” that help it give a realistic portrayal of what might happen after a major earthquake hits Wellington. Do not be confused; it is dramatisation of events but is not the real thing!

Seeing New Orleans being evacuated ahead of Hurricane Gustav, it is timely to consider what New Zealanders would be able to do if we had to leave home in a hurry.

One of the “star attractions” at the National Civil Defence Emergency Management Forum at Parliament tomorrow will be big, green and mobile. It is Horizons Regional Council’s mobile education facility and emergency operations centre (EOC), the “Green Rig” (right). It will be set up in the forecourt at Parliament tomorrow.