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Exercise Rū Whenua Newsletter
July 2024
Two days down and one to go of Exercise Rū Whenua 2024! Lots of learnings from the exercise activities have been identified to date, and we still have our recovery-focused exercise day to go!
Thanks to everyone for the enormous effort that has gone into the planning and execution of the first two days of Exercise Rū Whenua. We hope you are looking forward to the final day next Wednesday and we wish you the best of luck with completing the exercise!
Exercise Aim
Exercise Rū Whenua aims to improve New Zealand’s ability to respond to and recover from a significant Alpine Fault earthquake.
Remember the dates!
A reminder, the exercise will be held over three days:
• 12 June 2024: Phase 1 - Initial impact (functional exercise)
• 26 June 2024: Phase 2 - Sustained response (tabletop exercise)
• 10 July 2024: Phase 3 - Transition to recovery (tabletop exercise)
Exercise Rū Whenua Day One
Day One of Exercise Rū Whenua was held on 12 June 2024 and was a full day of activity for all involved. As NEMA’s DCE Emergency Management John Price put it, the first exercise day was a chance to test, “How do we function on day one? How do we activate and work with the system? How do we activate the NCMC?
Day One involved a full activation of the National Crisis Management Centre (NCMC) in Wellington, with staff from NEMA and a broad range of national agencies present to support the simulated response. As well, regional CDEM Groups around New Zealand activated their Emergency Coordination Centres, or otherwise provided support to the exercise by feeding in injects and contributing to the National Controllers meetings to provide situational awareness.
It was a challenging day for those involved but all participants put in a lot of effort and many learnings were identified that will contribute to improving the emergency management system and enabling better support and coordination when the next real event happens.
Exercise Rū Whenua Day Two
It was amazing to bring close to 200 leaders together on Wednesday 26 June for Day Two of Exercise Rū Whenua. In the room we had senior leaders from the private sector, industry associations, NGOs, iwi, Council CEs and government agencies, plus specialist subject matter experts exercising day 8 post an Alpine Fault magnitude 8.2 earthquake. We also had mayors from the regions most affected by the scenario in the room, as well as international delegations from Fiji and Australia.
The day started with words from the Minister about the importance of leaders working together to grip up the challenge of emergency management in New Zealand. This was followed by the CE of NEMA, Dave Gawn, speaking to the depth of challenge a catastrophic event such as the Alpine Fault Scenario we were exercising would present for all of New Zealand. Then, Tom Wilson, NEMA's Chief Science Advisor, spoke with (somehow) both gravity and humour about the Alpine Fault Magnitude 8.2 earthquake scenario and the impacts it would have. The setting was eight days into the response with 40,000 people in isolated communities, including Queenstown that will have no road access for another 3 weeks. On day seven an aftershock magnitude 7 occurred creating two more landslide dams.
Following these sessions and armed with a solid understanding of the significant challenge we were tasked with, the leaders in the room worked through a range of issues with regards to supporting isolated communities. Themes included how to put communities at the heart of the response through to delivering a supply chain to isolated communities. In the afternoon, leaders started to identify ways in which the system could work better to prepare for this type of scenario. We also heard from international leaders about what has worked well in Australia and Fiji.
Pulling this type of event together is a huge undertaking, and there is no doubt it has helped us to shift the dial on New Zealand’s understanding of the importance of working together to address the challenges a catastrophic event would provide.
Particular themes from the day emerged which will be summarised and shared. Some that were spoken to in the closing addresses were:
- The importance of our children and the role they will play in leading emergency preparedness
- The need for NEMA to work alongside leaders across sectors to grip this challenge up with urgency
- The reality that only by working together will we be able to keep people safe on their darkest day
Mō tātau, ā, mō kā uri ā muri ake nei. For us, and our children after us
Preparing for Day Three: Recovery
The final exercise day (10 July 2024) will focus on Recovery. The scenario for Day Three of Exercise Rū Whenua will be based approximately 6 weeks after the initial earthquake and will represent a progression from the scenario presented on Day Two.
Day Three of Exercise Rū Whenua will take the form of a workshop. It will bring together leaders from national and local government, business, Iwi and the community. Day Three will increase our understanding of the consequences of a Magnitude 8 Alpine Fault earthquake event together with the complex, interdependent, system-wide implications for Recovery. Similarly to Day Two, the workshop will seek to develop a unity of effort and a shared commitment to take action to better prepare NZ for an event that will happen, if not in our lifetime, then in our children’s lifetime.
Check out our webpage
Check out our webpage for all the exercise documentation and material that has been developed for Exercise Rū Whenua!
