Checking your property after a major incident
All schools are required to follow emergency procedures after an incident.
Step 1: Visually check buildings and grounds
After a major incident such as an adverse weather event or earthquake, schools must visually check their buildings for any signs of damage before the school can open.
If there are concerns about any buildings after completing a check, you must contact a property professional to help organise urgent repairs (see step 2). Use the emergency response checklist below to note areas with damage.
Isolating unsafe buildings and grounds
For grounds
- Cordon off with tape, cones or posts.
- Use signs with warnings prohibiting access.
For buildings
- Lock the doors and put up signs.
- Nail boards across doors and windows.
- Spray paint the building with warnings prohibiting entry.
- Use barriers, like tape or security fences, if the risk is severe.
How to safely manage your water supply
- Post 'do not drink' notices if supply might be contaminated.
- Shut off all water fountains or tape them up.
- Have bottled water available or boil any tap water for 2 minutes before drinking, and make this accessible to students.
- Provide chemical hand wash in toilets.
Water can also be made safe to drink by using purification tablets and, if no other option is available, by adding 3 drops of bleach to each litre of water.
In the longer term, your local council or the Ministry of Health’s local health protection officer (HPO) or drinking water assessor (DWA) can confirm your water’s safety if you have any doubts.
Step 2: Contact your property professional to organise urgent repairs
A property professional is either:
- the school’s property manager
- a project manager appointed by the school, or
- an emergency response coordinator.
Your regional office can help arrange a property professional to look at school buildings. If it’s outside work hours, you can contact your emergency response coordinator directly.
Contact details for regional property offices
Contact an emergency response coordinator
A property professional can organise urgent repairs for things like:
- live electrical, mains gas, sewerage or water issues
- cracking around ceiling beams and/or foundations
- building movement off piles
- soil liquefaction
- damaged stairs/railings.
They’ll also organise an engineering check if it’s needed (see step 3).
If anyone identifies an urgent health and safety issue at your school, you must get it resolved immediately.
Step 3: Engage an engineer if necessary
There's a limited number of structural engineers available, and after a major incident like an earthquake engineers will need to prioritise their workload to concentrate on buildings with the highest risk.
We can help arrange for an engineer to survey your school buildings if need be.
Buildings over two storeys
School buildings which are over 2 storeys and of heavy construction are checked by structural engineers after every significant earthquake as a precaution.
Other buildings
A structural engineer will do a thorough survey if requested by a property professional.
Step 4: Organise non-urgent repairs
Contact your property advisor
If the damage is not causing an immediate hazard, email your property advisor with details including:
- the building or part of the site affected
- what the building is used for
- the parts of the building affected
- whether the building or area has been isolated
- what’s been done to make the building or area safer.
Safely remove broken fluorescent lights
To safely clean up broken fluorescent lights:
- open all windows and leave the room for at least 15 minutes
- turn off heating/air conditioning systems, heat pumps, dehumidifiers and ventilation systems
- wear gloves
- keep other people away during the clean up
- do not use a vacuum cleaner or a broom. This could vaporise and spread mercury through the air and contaminate the vacuum cleaner or broom
- wipe the area with a damp paper towel and put used paper towels and gloves in a plastic bag for disposal with other debris.
You can dispose of unbroken lights by wrapping them in newspaper and taking them to retail stores which have collection boxes. Do not recycle these lights.
Step 5: Make an insurance claim if needed
If you’re going to make an insurance claim, you must contact us before you start any repairs.
You may be able to get funding to cover the cost of repairs to buildings that are either Crown-owned, or part Crown-owned with your school, through the school building insurance funding programme. However, if you get repairs done before talking to your property advisor about it first, your funding request may be declined.