Operation Ru Whenua

Literally, Land on the move.

Operation Ru Whenua is a Civil Defence exercise based on a magnitude 8.2 earthquake with an epicentre 10km north east of Whataroa following a rupture of the Alpine Fault. The scenario was written by a team of local Emergency Management Officers based at the District and Regional Councils. The scenario is further complicated by a coincidental rupture of one of the Buller faults, producing a similar ground shaking experience in the Buller District as with the other two districts. Whilst this is unlikely to occur in reality it adds to the main aim of the exercise, which is to test the communication and response networks in a simulation event. The district Emergency Operations Centres will be operating for the 18 hours of the exercise, with information coming in minute by minute to the staff from the prepared script. The staff on duty will not know what is coming their way during the exercise, but they may be able to guess some of the main events based on their knowledge of the Lifelines Reports and expected consequences of a large earthquake on the West Coast.

Information will be provided on this page during the exercise to allow individuals and groups the opportunity to gain an in-depth understanding of the flow of information into and out of Emergency Operation Centres. It will give a hypothetical, but plausible, scenario for an Alpine Fault earthquake.