Exercise Rū Whenua Newsletter – October 2023

Welcome to our first Exercise Rū Whenua 2024 update newsletter!

Exercise Planning is now well underway at the national level.  We will be issuing regular newsletters to give exercise participants an update on exercise preparations and related work across the country.

Why are we exercising for the Alpine Fault?

The Alpine Fault is one of New Zealand’s major fault lines and has the capability of generating a severe magnitude 8 earthquake. Planning for this risk has been a focus across the South Island emergency management sector and within NEMA in recent years.

While we can’t predict earthquakes, scientific research indicates there is a 75% probability of an Alpine fault earthquake occurring in the next 50 years, and there is a 4 out of 5 chance that it will be a magnitude 8+ event.

Despite being based on an earthquake scenario, the exercise will also be an opportunity to test or practice some of the lessons identified following the response to the January and February 2023 North Island severe weather events.

The exercise will be based on the South Island Alpine Fault Earthquake Response (SAFER) Framework, which is a key output of AF8, a project to improve knowledge of readiness for, and resilience to a magnitude 8+ earthquake on the Alpine Fault.

Diary the dates now!

The exercise will be held over three days on:
• 12 June 2024 (functional exercise)
• 26 June 2024 (tabletop exercise)
• 10 July 2024 (tabletop exercise)

Phase 1 - Initial impact – 12 June 2024

Day 1 will be response focused with activations of the National Crisis Management Centre, Emergency Coordination Centres and Emergency Operations Centres around the country. The focus will be on establishing a common operating picture, and providing initial rapid support, including the coordination of international support.

Phase 2 – Sustained response – 26 June 2024

Day 2 will have a focus on exploring sustained response activities and issues (likely to be set 1-2 weeks following initial earthquake impact). Activities on this day will be conducted as a table-top discussion exercise with a national-level focus, deep-diving into some key themes identified as a part of catastrophic event planning, including mass casualties and transport, mass accommodation and welfare, mass movement, the role of science, better integration of iwi/Māori, coordination of international support, and national command and control arrangements.

Phase 3 - Transition to recovery – 10 July 2024

Day 3 will focus on the transition from response to recovery and will be a table-top discussion exercise looking at long-term national recovery implications from a significant event.

Exercise aim and objectives 

Aim

The aim of Exercise Rū Whenua is to test New Zealand's arrangements for responding to and recovering from a significant Alpine Fault earthquake.

Objectives

Specific objectives are being developed and will be confirmed soon.

The exercise will also seek to meet the following National Exercise Programme objectives:

• Lead a coordinated interagency response.
• Support a coordinated interagency response.
• Enable high level all-of-government decision-making through the ODESC System.
• Integrate recovery planning and arrangements into the response.
• Situational awareness is established and maintained during the exercise.
• Manage and deliver public information management to establish and maintain public assurance and confidence in the response.  
• Integrate previous lessons identified from interagency activities to engender a culture of continuous improvement (this applies to the exercise process).

Participating agencies may wish to add their own objectives in addition to the ones listed above.

Exercise writing tips

Contact Us

The Exercise Rū Whenua newsletter provides exercise participants an update on exercise preparations and exercise planning work underway across the country.

For any queries on newsletter content please contact the NEMA Exercises Team.