For those who are getting fit in preparation, a blogger I followed a while back called Jamie Scott was in the ChCh quake. He reported that cardio and running strength wasn't what helped him most. He said the most useful were lifting heavy things (he had to lift his car out of a crack in the road) and climbing (he climbed the neighbour's fence to feed and rescue his cat). He didn't really need to run anywhere, so there you go - that's what to focus on at the gym. He wrote a great blog post on his experience but sadly I can't find it.