Waitaki District emergency services manager Chris Raine said the Titan 9000 petrol-driven 6-7kVA generator would provide Kurow Civil Defence with a valuable asset in the case of a major emergency.
''The generator itself will provide [power for] the civil defence group and add power to the welfare centre of the main operations site, depending on what the emergency is, or it can be used at another site in the town.
''The main civil defence groups have a generator, because obviously we can't rely on the grid should we get struck by a major earthquake.''
Mr Raine said the main civil defence groups in the Waitaki district - at Kurow, Palmerston, Kakanui, Hampden, Oamaru and Waitaki Bridge - now all had generators available.
The $1250 generator was funded through the Meridian Energy's Waitaki Community Fund, he said.
