KEY POINTS:
A mock volcanic eruption in Auckland will test how well prepared New Zealand is for a disaster.
Organised by the Ministry of Civil Defence and Emergency Management, Exercise Ruaumoko is being held in two stages.
In the first stage, starting today, groups including police, firefighters, ambulance, councils and ministries discuss their roles in a major disaster.
All the effects of an eruption such as evacuations, blocked roads, destroyed buildings and the impact on water, electricity, sewerage and telephone services will be considered.
Participants will also look at how public information will be distributed and what economic, political and social issues could follow an eruption.
The second exercise, being held over two days in March, will involve a fake volcanic eruption threat somewhere in the wider Auckland area.
Precursor activity in the form of seismicity in the Auckland region will alert authorities to the "threat" and the agencies will talk about how they'd respond once an eruption is certain.
Auckland Civil Defence Emergency Management Group spokesman Wally Thomas said the scenario would be played out in real-time. "We'll say, 'It's 7.30pm and we've had the first tremor, what happens now?'."
After approving a national emergency plan in 2005, the Government stipulated there be two national-level disaster preparedness exercises to test New Zealand's arrangements for responding to a major disaster.
The first, Exercise Capital Quake, was held a year ago and was based on a 7.6 magnitude earthquake rupturing the Wellington Fault and causing substantial damage across central New Zealand.
