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Exercise Rū Whenua Newsletter
April 2024
Welcome to our April update on Exercise Rū Whenua! Read on for a link to the recently released Coordinating Instruction and the Participation Form.
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 Coordinating Instruction out now!
The Exercise Rū Whenua Coordinating Instructions were released this week and are available on the NEMA website. This document provides detailed guidance on participating in Exercise Rū Whenua. It provides the basic details of the exercise, including its aim, objectives, scenario overview, timing of phases, the exercise formats used, and the evaluation criteria.
Let us know if your agency plans to participate in the exercise
An effective response to a significant earthquake requires an all-of-government approach. Many national agencies and CDEM Groups have already been involved in the development of the exercise to date and most of these are planning to participate in the exercise. Iwi / Māori are warmly invited to participate. Different levels of participation can occur over the three exercise days (functional exercise and two tabletop exercise days).
The national exercise planners need to know the level of participation your agency will give to Exercise Rū Whenua so we can ensure participants receive the right information in the lead-up to the exercise and appropriate injects during exercise play.
If your agency plans on participating in Exercise Rū Whenua, you will need to complete the form at the link below as soon as possible but no later than 30 April 2024.
If you have any questions about your level of participation, please let us know at exercises@nema.govt.nz.
Exercise writing tips
A structured approach to exercise development and writing is important in this type of large, multi-agency exercise. Download the CDEM Exercises, Director's Guideline for Civil Defence Emergency Management Groups [DGL 010/19] for information about providing a common approach to exercise planning.
A suite of exercise development templates is also available for you to use to support your exercise development. Download them here.
Check out our webpage
We are adding information and documents to the NEMA webpage as they are developed. The Exercise Coordinating Instructions are now available here for download and further documentation will be coming soon - we are currently developing some exercise specific templates for you to use - so add the page to your favourites and check back regularly!
