Part 2: Meeting up
Preparing for a Civil Defence event
The holiday break is a great time to work on your household emergency plan. When creating your plan, think about how you will meet up and reconnect with each other. You may be at work or school and be some distance apart.
A significant event is a stressful time, especially if we are separated from our loved ones. Often, cell phones are quickly overloaded or the power is out and communication is challenged. What are some ways that as a family, or group, we can prepare for this?
Agreeing to a specific location to meet up is a good idea – perhaps at your own house, or at the house of a relative, it could even be a local landmark such as the clocktower, community hall, or service station. Different locations may be needed for different situations – Grandma’s beachfront bach isn’t the best place in a tsunami! The locations might also be different if you are spread across different towns or locations.
Agreeing to a time, or time frame to meet up is also a good idea. If you haven’t made it to the agreed meeting point within two hours of the event, then a family member will raise the alarm.
Make sure the time frame, and the location, are relevant for you. It’s no good agreeing on a location that you might not be able to get to or get there fast enough.
Many children in Westland attend school some distance from their home so it is also important that, where possible, you have a friend or family member that you trust to look after your children if you are separated for a few days or weeks. It is important that your children’s school knows this too as they are only able to release children to authorized people.
You can find a link to help you develop your household plan in multiple languages at the link here.
