Yesterday, as part of National ShakeOut Day, the Napier Hill Community Response Group and Napier Central School took another major step forward in their community preparedness journey.

FIRST72 delivered and positioned the new SMART EPOD at Napier Central School – a key part of a wider project funded through the 2025/26 NEMA CDEM Resilience Fund to strengthen Napier Hill’s readiness for evacuation in the event of a major earthquake or tsunami.

The ShakeOut exercise provided a real-world test of how the school, parents and community would coordinate during an emergency. Once the students were safely collected by parents, the volunteer community response group activated the Community Emergency Hub, using the new EPOD to simulate a real response.

It was a great day to be part of seeing an engaged, motivated and highly capable group work together, identify lessons and refine their systems.

This really is what community-led resilience looks like in practice.

We are proud to stand behind the Napier Hill team and continue supporting their journey through further training, exercises and collaboration. It’s exciting to see how far this group has come – and where they’ll be in the next year as they keep building confidence and capability.

Harry McPhail
Co-Founder & General Manager
FIRST72