Important lessons were learned following the Kermadec Earthquakes in 2021 and Northland Civil Defence was keen to ensure lessons around how to respond to a significant tsunami threat were shared, for the future.
When the tsunami sirens sounded on the morning of Friday 5th March 2021, there was an eery silence that rang out across Northland. Was it real or a test run? Could we actually be hit by a tsunami? Where are we supposed to go and what are we supposed to do?
While many businesses and organisations had prepared – in theory – for such an event, there’s nothing like a real drill to learn some valuable lessons about how to improve for next time. Northland Civil Defence came to Level, looking for a solution to help develop communication tools to share the lessons learned in a simple and accessible way, so we could all be better prepared next time.
It was critical to be able to share simple advice and support for all members of the community, including whānau, businesses and schools, should this ever happen again.
We helped the Civil Defence Northland Emergency Management Group refine and script key messages and developed them into a simple series of digital animation videos that clearly outlined how people should react to tsunami sirens in the future.
These seven short videos were promoted on social media to ensure they reached a wide audience and were designed to target key areas of focus, such as schools, businesses and those living on the coast, as well as ensuring people will know where to seek information should there be a next time. The full series can be viewed here.
