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: Civil Defence systems get early test 
4 May
This morning’s tsunami warning was a timely reminder to be prepared for an emergency at any hour of the day, say Hastings Civil Defence staff.
Senior Emergency Management Officer Paul Hawke said Hawke’s
Bay Civil Defence authorities stayed in close contact with
each other once they received word of the warning, although
he was disappointed it had not come from the Ministry of
Civil Defence in Wellington.
“We have a very good system in place regionally, but
it does rely on activation from the national level. If there
is even a possibility of a tsunami, confirmed or not, I
would have expected our region to be put on alert.”
Mr Hawke said the Hastings Emergency Operations Centre was activated after he heard about the warning through other means just after 5am. The first official word arrived much later, in the form of a media release announcing the warning had been cancelled.
“We appreciate the Ministry needs to confirm these events before putting the full system into action, but it confuses everyone when the message is out in the media yet the Ministry is silent.”
Hastings District Council Chief Executive Murray Gilbertson said he expected local authorities would look at what lessons could be learned from this morning, and said the Ministry should do likewise.
“Time is of the essence with a tsunami, and the Ministry must realise we need as much warning as possible if we are to make a suitable local response. Our systems worked reasonably well, but it has highlighted issues we could look at such as warning sirens for coastal areas. In the end I expect people would rather have a false alarm than no alarm in a real emergency.”
This morning’s events come less than two weeks before a planned Civil Defence exercise involving 29 countries around the Pacific, which would deal with a similar scenario.
For more information:
Please contact Murray Gilbertson on 878 0500
