Today (6 October 2026) marks the start of Exercise Te Ranga Tūtahi, Hawke’s Bay Emergency Management’s (HBEM) series of five functional exercises designed to strengthen the region’s emergency response capability across both local and regional emergency management.
Exercise Te Ranga Tūtahi will run from October 2026 to April 2027, with each of Hawke’s Bay’s four local council Emergency Operations Centres (EOCs) and the regional Emergency Coordination Centre (ECC) participating in its own dedicated exercise.
Based on a local and regional earthquake scenario, the exercises will test EOC and ECC activation, initial response actions, inter-agency collaboration, and how each centre will develop situational awareness in the first critical hours after an earthquake.
Shane Briggs, Director of Hawke’s Bay Emergency Management, said Exercise Te Ranga Tūtahi marks another important step in strengthening the region’s preparedness.
“Exercises let our people apply their training in a realistic setting, working exactly as they would in a real response.
“Building on experience, training and past exercises, Exercise Te Ranga Tūtahi will be a valuable chance to build confidence, test processes, and identify areas for improvement.”
Exercise Te Ranga Tūtahi is the second exercise series run by HBEM as a central part of the Hawke’s Bay CDEM Transformation Strategy.
“We remain committed to learning, adapting, and improving how we work together across councils, mana whenua, agencies, and communities to keep people safe.
“Exercising is not something we do occasionally. It’s now a regular, expected part of how emergency management works in Hawke’s Bay, across every council and the Regional Emergency Coordination Centre,” Shane Briggs said.
The name Te Ranga Tūtahi reflects the weaving together of people, systems, and leadership to act as one, capturing the collaborative spirit of the exercise series across all agencies and councils.
“This exercise series has been designed collaboratively by staff from each council, the regional emergency management office, and Emergency Services.
“Working together to design the exercise series ensures that the exercises reflect how we would operate together in a real emergency,” Shane Briggs said.
Trained staff from each participating council will work in their respective emergency centres. Staff from HBEM, emergency services, the Welfare Coordination Group and the Hawke's Bay Lifelines Group will support each exercise on the day.
Notes:
A functional exercise builds on tabletop exercises by giving staff the opportunity to work through a realistic scenario, make decisions, and use real tools in a team setting.
An EOC (Emergency Operations Centre) is a facility from which a local authority coordinates response and recovery during an emergency. The ECC (Emergency Coordination Centre) coordinates at a regional level.
The exercise series will be based on an earthquake impacting the Hawke’s Bay region. The scenario has been selected to provide a credible and realistic mechanism to activate emergency management functions and partner agencies at both local and regional levels. This scenario will be used across all five exercises, with localised impacts tailored through injects developed to reflect local context, impacts, and priorities. The ECC exercise will focus on managing regionalimpacts and coordinating across multiple local responses.
6 October 2026
Disclaimers and Copyright
While every endeavour has been taken by the Hawke's Bay Emergency Management to ensure that the information on this website is
accurate and up to date, Hawke's Bay Emergency Management shall not be liable for any loss suffered through the use, directly or indirectly, of information on this website. Information contained has been assembled in good faith.
Some of the information available in this site is from the New Zealand Public domain and supplied by relevant
government agencies. Hawke's Bay Emergency Management cannot accept any liability for its accuracy or content.
Portions of the information and material on this site, including data, pages, documents, online
graphics and images are protected by copyright, unless specifically notified to the contrary. Externally sourced
information or material is copyright to the respective provider.
© Hawke's Bay Emergency Management - hbemergency.govt.nz / / enquiries@hbemergency.govt.nz