Mr Raine was making the comments ahead of the Civil Defence and Rural Fire Disaster Awareness Week, which this year will be held from October 11 to 17.
Traditionally, rural dwellers were used to isolation and typically had extra supplies on hand and stand-by measures in place, whereas people in town were often not as well prepared because they were used to having ready access to supermarkets, he said.
Rural people needed to be mindful of their power supplies and perhaps have stand-by generators on hand.
And because the newer models of telephones were not as reliable, people should consider retaining an older phone to use in an emergency, he said.
As well as preparedness, it was important to have an effective communications network so information could flow freely, he said.
Mr Raine said, in rural areas typically, representatives of organisations like Federated Farmers would provide leadership in this area.
These people would help with reconnaissance and provide information to centres about what was needed and where, he said.
Mr Raine said in his role he was constantly on the lookout for potential risks and hazards.
Mr Raine said he was at present involved in "reactivating" community emergency centres throughout the district, trying to set up points of contact.
During his time in Southland he was responsible for setting up nine community first-response teams.
Volunteers were always needed to fill various roles from manning Civil Defence sector posts to activating a "telephone tree".
Mr Raine said the most likely emergency scenarios in North Otago would be extreme weather events, or fire.
Nowadays, improved communication systems meant information available to the Civil Defence headquarters' staff was up-to-the-minute.
As an example, they would receive warnings up to three days out from a weather event allowing them to issue warnings and advise farmers to move stock to less vulnerable areas, Mr Raine said.