Southlands residents urged to prepare for COVID-19, floods and Alpine earthquake

Robin Eddy/Staff

Simon Mapp, Superintendent of the Southland Emergency Management Group, poses in front of images from the 2020 Southland floods, urging people to make a contingency plan.

The man in charge during the emergency in Southland urges people to plan for floods, the Covid-19 pandemic and the Alpine Fault earthquake.

Now is the time to prepare, said Simon Mapp, Superintendent of the Southland Emergency Management Group.

Mapp said the spread of Covid-19 in the south was just one scenario where people could stockpile, and preparations should include treatments for children to get past self-isolation, as well as a stockpile of essential medicines.

Covid-19 has shown that an international pandemic can come to New Zealand and change our lives.

Read more: * “Reasonable People Won’t Live Here”: Is the West Coast Ready for the Alpine Solstice Earthquake? * Alpine fault earthquake likely to cause tsunami in lakes * Videos show devastating impact across the South Island if the alpine fault ruptures

He said the plan should essentially have people prepared for any situation where they can’t go home, including who to take the kids, where to meet if someone can’t go home, and what to do if phone lines break.

Another simple tip was to fill plastic drink bottles and containers with water and keep them in the cupboard.

He said you had better be prepared when you’re in a “fight or flight or freeze” scenario.

Last year, the Southland Emergency Department surveyed people on social media, on field days and in supermarkets about preparedness.

Fifty percent of the 618 respondents had some form of contingency plan.

RNZ

The cause of the massive Alpine rift is due to another major earthquake, and scientists have come up with a scenario for what the devastation would look like. (First published May 2018)

Mapp said more respondents had plans when conducting the survey last year, after the February floods.

He put this in the “halo effect” box. We are used to living in the world of Covid-19, and the annual survey began after the area went through the February 2020 floods, which are no longer on top of people’s minds, he said.

Mapp also found that many of the people surveyed considered themselves unprepared, but in fact had a window bag, a generator, or even a motorhome.

When Mapp was asked what he worried about most, he said that the Alpine earthquake was always in the back of his mind, but floods were the most frequent and impactful.

As a former police sergeant who worked on domestic violence, Mapp was aware that not everyone could fill the pantry a week or two in advance.

However, he urged people to prepare in any way possible, not just for the virus.

At a civil defense emergency management group meeting in Southland last month, a public report was given to committee members saying the probability of an earthquake in the Alpine region had increased.

The probability of an Alpine fault earthquake occurring in the next 50 years has increased from 30% to 75%.

Mapp said many of Southland’s daily supplies came from Christchurch and Dunedin, so the Alpine earthquake required planning.

A sample preparedness plan can be found at getready.govt.nz.

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