This post was originally written as a newsletter article for ETNZ (Nov 2016)
I was in a taxi in very intense traffic in Bangalore, India last week, in the middle of a theatre tour, when my phone buzzed with the Geonet app telling me a 7.5 quake had hit central New Zealand. It was around 4.30pm local time. Suddenly I felt a very long way from home. Prior to the tour, we had set up a system in the event of such things as a natural disaster or bomb blast in India, where the office in Auckland would coordinate contact with our families. However I hadn’t considered the reverse – where those of us on tour would need reassurance from home.
Fortunately within mere minutes I had Facebook confirmation of the safety of almost all my relatives in the regions affected (I have to say Canterbury people are very good at registering their safety, those in Marlborough and Wellington were somewhat slower, but got there in the end!). It was all a bit surreal as I found myself coordinating information via text to the Auckland branch of the family (who were still asleep) about a cousin’s farmhouse in North Canterbury that was badly damaged. It was like I had become my own little mini call-centre, in the back of the slow moving taxi in India.
So now I’m back in New Zealand and catching up with clients to see how well they fared. So far everyone I have been in contact with in the “zone” has reported minimal damage in their warehouses and venues. I think the Canterbury earthquakes have made us all aware of the need to take such actions as securing shelving and storing heavy items near to the ground. And anyone that did go into work to find fallen fixtures, equipment and materials can be grateful that the main quake activity occurred in the middle of the night when few people were at work. No doubt you will take the lesson, and immediately rectify the issue, knowing that at any other time that fallen bookcase may have broken a head.
One thing that does need to be considered in the next few months is risks associated with aftershocks. Because the size of the initial quake was so large, the risk profile of earthquakes occurring as an event has changed. Whereas it would have been considered “unlikely”, or even “highly unlikely” a couple of weeks ago, the likelihood of an earthquake (as an aftershock) occurring now has shifted. It may even be considered “likely” if your work span is over several days or a week. As a result you may need to look at your management plans around activities such as structural builds, working at height, and overhead rigging. Even the best catwalks leave a worker pretty vulnerable in a large shake. Look at the work tasks you need to do and at least minimise the time people need to be off the ground, or structures are left unsecured. It is also a good time to go over emergency procedures and make sure you have specific plans in place for activities you are planning and the places you are going, and that everyone knows what those plans are.
And if you are in a situation where there is damage in your workplace and a clean up is required, make sure that the workplace is structurally safe to enter before you commence work, and that you have provided your workers with personal protective equipment for the risks present (particularly with regard to dust and spilled substances). Be super-vigilant in older buildings where asbestos may be present. And before you start any clean up, plan your work and communicate your plans with everyone.
Finally, be kind. Nerves are shattered and people are dealing with home lives as well as work lives.
Cathy Knowsley – HiViz Event Management www.hivizevents.co.nz (and ETNZ committee member).
