No doubt most New Zealanders are aware of the Tsunami Alert that we were under for much of Sunday 28 February after the major Major Earthquake off the coast of Chile.

Hutt Valley Fire Police Unit were paged shortly after 0400hrs Sunday, to respond to the Hutt Valley Emergency Management Office in Lower Hutt. Once there, along with the the NZ Police, The crew of HUTT407 and members of both the Upper and Lower Hutt Volunteer Rural Fire Forces (which are council directed assets, and thus part of Civil Defence planning), plans were made to close off public access to the roads immediately adjacent Wellington Harbour (aka Marine Drive, and the Esplanade, between Eastbourne and Petone). With the safety of the public foremost in the minds of HVEMO, and with the expectation of a wave height of no more than 1 meter, this was the biggest area of concern.

The VRFFs deployed, ready to implement road closures. Our Unit stood by at HVEMO and prepared to respond as a contingency, in the event of any trouble or any additional locations where manpower was required.

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RIMU4928 can be seen parked up near the HVEMO office, with Rural Fire Units in the process of deploying from the parking area. FP Foster and SFP Biddle are amongst the members standing by for action outside the HVEMO. Photos courtesy FP Key.

In the end, there was no event of substance involving the Hutt area and members of our Unit began to stand down mid-morning (with the predicted wave arrival time being approximately 0830). We retained a crew on duty, though, to patrol the Petone Foreshore (with our friends from Wainuiomata helping on the Eastbourne side of things) and enforce a 'closed beach' implemented by the Hutt City Council. Final stand-down for some of our members was not until Mid afternoon.

This was a 'proportionate response' given the nature of the risk to life and property, and quite appropriately made our Unit both aware and available to respond quickly should there have been a need. In particular, our skills with Traffic & People Management would have come in handy if the situation had escalated, along with providing resources for other logistical tasks as required in a dynamic and ever-changing environment.

This seems like an ideal opportunity to draw attention to the Civil Defence Website and the excellent material contained therein. We in Wellington live in an area that's well known for its Earthquake risk, and locals (and others!) are all to be encouraged to follow the advice from the folks at Civil Defence, and ensure that you're 'Ready to Get Thru'.