Media Release Archive

Starting tomorrow, the Ministry of Civil Defence & Emergency Management is hosting a nationwide series of tsunami preparedness seminars.

New Zealand agencies involved in promoting earthquake safety are concerned that advice from a source discredited overseas is being circulated by e-mail in New Zealand.

The Ministry of Civil Defence & Emergency Management announced today that it recorded 204 weather and geological events in the first quarter of the year, 1 January 2008 to 31 March 2008.

The Ministry of Civil Defence & Emergency Management today distributed draft guidelines for planning mass evacuations.

Civil defence emergency management (CDEM) organisations will have better and faster access to science information through a memorandum of understanding (MOU) between the Ministry of Civil Defence & Emergency Management and GNS Science.

The Ministry of Civil Defence & Emergency Management announced today that it recorded 900 weather and geological events or emergencies last year.

Maintaining strong international links has been set as a priority for the Ministry of Civil Defence & Emergency Management.

New Zealand’s ability to respond to civil defence emergency management (CDEM) events was strengthened today after the Ministry of Civil Defence & Emergency Management and The Salvation Army signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) about welfare services.

Representatives from 24 countries and international agencies will be in New Zealand for the next two weeks for a major international disaster response training exercise.

As international Disaster Awareness Week gets underway, three on-line initiatives to help provide better information to the civil defence emergency management (CDEM) sector and the public have been announced.

It’s Disaster Awareness Week next week and New Zealand has again shown us how unpredictable our country can be and why we need to get ready and be prepared.

Impact is the Ministry of Civil Defence & Emergency Management’s quarterly journal.

The Get Ready Get Thru website which tells people how to prepare and recover from a disaster has been translated into seven languages, Maori, Arabic, traditional and simplified Chinese script, Hindi, Korean, Samoan and Tongan.

The Get Ready Get Thru website, which tells people how to prepare and recover from a disaster has been translated into Māori and seven other languages. The website has also been translated into Arabic, traditional and simplified Chinese script, Hindi and Korean. This makes it the most extensively translated website in New Zealand.

The Get Ready Get Thru website which tells people how to prepare and recover from a disaster has been translated into Maori, Samoan, Tongan and five other languages. The website has also been translated into Arabic, traditional and simplified Chinese script, Hindi and Korean. This makes it the most extensively translated website in New Zealand.

The latest swarm of earthquakes in the Bay of Plenty area highlights the need to be prepared, says Ministry of Civil Defence and Emergency Management Director John Hamilton.

A New Zealand Special Service Medal Tsunami is to be presented in Feilding for services following the 2004 Boxing Day tsunami in Indonesia.

Last night’s swarm of earthquakes in Auckland are a timely reminder that New Zealanders need to be prepared for all types of disasters which could happen anywhere and anytime, says the Ministry of Civil Defence and Emergency Management.

The ability of New Zealanders to receive timely, authoritative messages in an emergency will be enhanced as the result of the agreement signed today between the Ministry of Civil Defence and Emergency Management (MCDEM) and the country’s major radio broadcasters, says MCDEM Acting Director Bruce Ferguson.

New Zealanders may have only a few minutes warning if an undersea earthquake within close proximity of the coastline generates a tsunami, says The Ministry of Civil Defence Emergency Management.

Civil Defence Minister, Rick Barker, will officially launch The Civil Defence & Emergency Management National Public Education Programme next Tuesday at Parliament.

The success of today’s tsunami exercise shows New Zealand can have confidence in the ability of the Ministry of Civil Defence and Emergency Management (MCDEM) to manage a major emergency, says MCDEM Director John Norton.

The Ministry of Civil Defence and Emergency Management has assured citizens of Canterbury that the National Civil Defence Emergency Management (CDEM) Plan has been properly developed under the law. It is robust in dealing with major disasters from whatever cause.

New Zealand joins 28 countries from around the Pacific on May 17th, in the first international exercise to test warning procedures for a distant-source tsunami.

When the shaking starts, the best advice is still to Drop, Cover and Hold. The advice from civil defence and The NZ Society for Earthquake Engineering comes in response to a widely circulated email by a self-professed rescue expert.

A major exercise to be held in Christchurch in September will test how national and international agencies will work together in a significant earthquake in a major urban area in the Pacific region.