"The special alarm will sound and 28 seconds later we will actually be evacuating the entire council building. That means moving out more than 100 staff and those visitors in there at the time," Mr Benseman said.
The siren will also be sounded by all the local radio stations.
Once the drill is completed council's emergency services team will be staging a mock exercise in the council building that will run for another few hours.
Mr Benseman said the bulk of people enrolled to take part in the Wanganui district were school children but he was "pleasantly surprised" by private industries that had enrolled.
"Some of them are quite small but even so their awareness has no doubt been heightened by what happened in Canterbury," he said.
The exercise was meant to happen before the Christchurch quakes but was put on hold because there was a concern it could be seen as being insensitive.
Councillor Randhir Dayha, the council's civil defence spokesman, said an earthquake was "a bit like an accident waiting to happen".
"We can't stop an earthquake occurring, but at least we can be prepared and recover from it more quickly," Mr Dayha said.
"The point is we can't afford to be blase about these things."
Mr Benseman said response from business operators in the central business district had been mixed.
He said the programme asked people to register online but he had a few people say that when they got to the registration stage they changed their minds.
But a positive spin-off had been the demand for Mr Benseman to go and speak to a variety of organisations such as rest homes and the Whanganui District Health Board.
He said the old lessons about running for cover under a door frame no longer applied.
"You're not going to get to the doorway in a big quake, so the idea is to drop, cover and hold wherever you are."