"It just happened to us," said Rhys Taylor, national co-ordinator of the Sustainable Living Programme, who spoke at a community resilience forum at Central Stories during Adult Learners' Week.
Mr Taylor, who was in Christchurch at the time of the earthquake, said the experience was "very scary".
"After people checked that others in their house and their neighbours were all right, there was a period of taking stock.
"We waited until daylight before walking the neighbouring streets, surveying the damage and checking if people needed help."
As a Civil Defence volunteer trained in being prepared for an emergency, Mr Taylor's home was equipped with a wind-up torch that could also charge a cellphone, a solar-powered radio, eight three litre containers of water and a gas cooker.
"However, for a community to be really resilient to adverse events, people needed to have more than just the skills associated with being prepared for short-term emergency," Mr Taylor said.
"There can also be longer emergencies. They just creep up on you. Something like a very steep rise in petrol prices.
"In a situation like that, you would need the skills to develop networks with friends and neighbours.
"We've had a whole generation that has taken cheap oil for granted but what would happen if we got into a situation where demand outstripped supply? How resilient would we be to that?"
He said the set of skills that helped people be environmentally sustainable was similar to those skills required to survive adverse events
