Earthquake preparation
It was a bit wobbly in Wellington today. No real damage but it was very busy and difficult for people to get home.
Just thought I would share a few ideas and impressions about what happened. I am sure people from Christchurch have many more useful suggestions as well.
The first earthquake today happened just before the end of school and lots of people also couldn't go back in their buildings immediately so there were lots of people heading home at about the same time. Lots of cars on the road, the trains were cancelled and many people walking home. Today really stressed several important things:
- the importance of having a plan of what you will do which everyone in your family knows. You can't rely on there being trains and buses and need to have a plan either to walk home or have a friend you can stay with if you can't get home. This is especially the case for people who work in Wellington and live up the coast/Hutt valley as it was difficult to get back there today at first. This is the case for bad weather as well, such as the storm in June.
- the need to have decent shoes you can walk in.
- even if you have full emergency kit in your office, you may not be there when something happens and may not be able to get back into your office to change your shoes, get your coat etc.
- the need to have a plan in place which you can follow without the need to contact people on the phone. This afternoon landlines to some offices etc were down, and you could send texts with Vodafone but no calls were possible. 2degrees worked better and I managed to get through on that.
- the traffic was very heavy, in and out of Wellington. It was more or less impossible to drive into Wellington along Oriental Bay for example.
Lots of people did however just go to the pub early, it being a Friday.
