"At Westshore and Eskdale School, their sirens are right on top of the buildings," Mrs Reade said. "So the kids were given special ear plugs to make sure their hearing wasn't damaged."
At Te Mata School in Havelock North, students slipped under their desks when the alarm bells sounded before being evacuated for a roll call.
Napier's Munroe St Countdown announced the drill over the loudspeakers. Checkout supervisor Mark Anderson said several of the customer-service personnel jumped under their desks when the time came.
However, not all businesses were as co-operative. Two Napier supermarkets said they did not participate because it was impractical.
Some Hastings business owners said the absence of any loud sirens meant it was difficult to get customers and staff to stop and "drop, cover, hold".
Heretaunga St West Unichem Pharmacy store assistant Mandy Treneman had expected more.
"It was a bit deflating," she said. "The way I read it was that you were going to get cars going round with sirens on the street ... when the time came we had customers in the store and it was a bit hard to just drop everything when you couldn't hear any sirens."
Safety in numbers
Hawke's Bay registrations: 46,958.
Who took part: Families 496, businesses 181, schools 103, pre-schools 119.
