Shaken but not Stirred - University of Canterbury

local Civil Defence agencies.
A proactive approach taken to learning from others as well as sharing their own experiences
with others. Examples include:
o a three-week visit to US universities, including California State University Northridge,
Louisiana State University and Virginia Tech by a member of the Incident Management
Team to learn from their experiences;
o taking a leadership role with other New Zealand universities to encourage a
collaborative planning approach; and
o hosting of the TEFMA/AURIMS conference and workshop, “Surviving the Impact” to
showcase the UC emergency management programme and encourage other institutions
to follow suit.
Distribution of an “at-work personal emergency kit” to all staff and postgraduate students.
These kits included a small backpack filled with a water bottle, information on what to do if
there is an emergency on campus, plus instructions on additional preparations people should
make (such as adding medications, comfortable shoes and other essentials in the backpack and
having a family plan for dealing with emergencies).
UC is also home to a number of active research programmes focusing on the risk from natural
hazards and community resilience in the face of these hazards. Some examples that helped to
shape the University’s preparedness prior to this event include:
o The Resilient Organisations Research Programme which involves researchers from
around New Zealand focusing on building the resilience of organisations to major crises.
As host organisation, UC has taken the opportunity to be involved as a case study in
several research initiatives undertaken by this programme and had actively engaged
with researchers to assist in the development of the University’s own resilience and
business continuity planning.
o The University’s long history as an international leader in earthquake engineering
research.
o The multidisciplinary Natural Hazards Research Centre which brings together
researchers from across the campus interested in natural hazards and their potential
impacts on our communities.
In 2009, UC was awarded the Emergency Management Academy of New Zealand Organisation of the
Year, which acknowledged the effectiveness of the work undertaken up to that time.
When the earthquake struck, the past planning and preparedness had a profound impact on the
University’s ability to deal with the aftermath of the earthquake. We highlight this, not because we
believe UC was the best prepared university, but to illustrate the extent to which preparedness can be
improved over a short space of time. A major factor in UC’s success in driving this initiative forward was
a few key champions from across the University, each able to pull different levers to make things
happen.
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