Close to 300 school children in Riverton were evacuated from their schools yesterday (October 15) as part of a national earthquake drill called ‘ShakeOut’.

New Zealand ShakeOut is Civil Defence’s national earthquake drill and tsunami hīkoi, which happens each year to get school kids and adults living in low-lying coastal areas prepared for the natural disasters. 

Earthquakes and tsunamis are a very real threat for New Zealand, we don’t know exactly when they will come but experts say we can be sure that they will, so it’s important that all Kiwis and especially children know the warning signs of a tsunami and what to do in the event of a long or strong earthquake.

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Emergency Management Southland Community Advisor Aly Curd said the children did really well and loved learning about what to do. 

“They’re very enthusiastic, we do this every year, so it’s just so ingrained in them now. It’s not a scary process for them at all, they ask a lot of questions and the whole thing just re-enforces the importance of what to do in an earthquake.”

As part of the drill, the tamariki from Riverton Primary, Riverton Kindergarten and Riverton Childcare along with Emergency Management Southland practised the ‘Drop, Cover, Hold and ‘Long or Strong, Get Gone’ routines.

‘Drop, Cover, Hold,’ teaches the kids how to safely take cover during an earthquake and ‘Long or Strong Get Gone’ teaches them how and where to evacuate too, by practising the ‘tsunami hīkoi.

For the Riverton school kids, their tsunami hīkoi is a 3km evacuation route on foot to high ground, which ends at the BUPA Care Home.

Ms Curd said the whole drill took just under 40 minutes.

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And once the kids arrived at the BUPA Care Home, they also performed waiata for the residents to practice for Polyfest, which Ms Curd said they “just loved”.

She said the drill also helped to teach the wider community about the risk Riverton faces with earthquakes and tsunami.

“What we try to push is that if people do need to evacuate, evacuate in vehicles because it’s faster and we don’t have the population density [in Southland] so we can do it.”

She said the appropriate evacuation distance is at least 1km inland and/or 1km up to higher ground. 

“But also, don’t stop, just keep going as far as you can,” she said.

This month Emergency Management Southland is also hosting an education event at Fiordland College to teach students about what to expect when the Alpine Fault Line goes off. 

According to experts, the Alpine Fine Line is overdue. It historically erupts every 300 years and the last one was in 1717.