HISTORY OF NON ACTION RE TSUNAMI Evacuation PATHS & SIRENS by the Council & Commissioners.

All correspondence after the images.

April 2024 PRRA has discovered the 2015 Tonkin & Taylor Report called Evacuation Planning for Tauranga. This contains recommendations for Papamoa. Click here to read.

And also discovered a 2011 report on the Tsunami Risk to Papamoa issued for Smartgrowth. This report indicates that death toll of 50 persons in a tsunami event is acceptable and that the calculated deaths in Papamoa will be closer to 1300 if the event happens at night. Click here to read or click here to see the Death Summary.

Tauranga City Council and Tonkin & Taylor won a NZ Engineering Excellence Award for the work done on Evacuation Paths in Tauranga. Where ????? Click to read.

Certainly! Tonkin + Taylor, a renowned engineering consultancy, has been actively involved in tsunami evacuation planning. Let me share some insights about their remarkable work:

  1. Project Overview:

    • More than 46,000 residents in the Tauranga region live along the coastal plain, spanning from Mount Maunganui (Mauao) to Pāpāmoa (Wairākei).

    • While tsunamis generated by distant earthquakes (e.g., Japan, Alaska, or South America) take over 12 hours to reach New Zealand, local source tsunamis (such as from the Kermadec Trench) could inundate parts of Mauao and Wairākei within 60 minutes.

    • The project involved hydrodynamic modeling of a maximum credible tsunami event, followed by tsunami evacuation modeling to optimize evacuation times and routes to safe areas.

    • A high-resolution model of the Tauranga City region was constructed using bathymetric and LiDAR data. Hazardous flows were found to reach up to 2 km inland.

    • The team identified safe areas above the maximum flow extents and developed a pedestrian-based evacuation network.

  1. Evacuation Challenges and Solutions:

    • Due to the flat inland topography, long distances to designated safe areas, and road configurations, existing evacuation times were up to 180 minutes.

    • To optimize evacuation, additional routes, connectors, and new safe zones (including vertical evacuation structures) were introduced.

    • As a result, evacuation times were reduced to less than 70 minutes for all areas, which is considered acceptable for the modeled tsunami event.

  1. Recognition and Impact:

For more details, you can explore the official project page. Their dedication and innovative approach serve as a blueprint for others facing similar challenges1.

Learn more

Papamoa Residents Presentation to the Long Term Plan 2024-2034 RE Evacuation Paths for Papamoa. Click to read.

NOV 2023 UPDATE — Revised maps, 95% of Papamoa is under water after a design Tsunami wave inundation. All residents need to evacuate to the higher ground of Papamoa Hills. PRRA has been telling the Council & the Commissioners this for years and asking for a series of evacuation paths and crossing over the motorway. Council says no!!!

Where do the residents go??

Make a plan to get to the Papamoa Hills by foot or cycle. You are on your own.


2022 This representation of the wave is based on TCC data on their website. It is here for comment and to start discussion. The size and duration of any wave is the unknown. Any water at the TEL (expressway) will be catastrophic for Papamoa. In October 2023 the new Tsunami Inundation maps were released and confirm this analysis.

Reply to Anne Tolley 12 August 2023

Attention Anne Tolley, Commission Chair

RE Tsunami Escape Routes in the Papamoa Area

Dear Anne,

Thank you for your response about the request to include the tsunami escape routes in the Long Term Plan. To date, the Transport section has not made any contact with me. From previous meetings, their attitude is very negative to the concept.

For your information when I introduced the report from Tonkin & Taylor (2016) in our meeting with the Emergency Response Team, they did not appear to remember the report. The details from this T&T report have not been translated to much that is tangible and useful. Where are the sixteen safe locations? All the direction signboards? Also, since the 2016 report, the population of Papamoa has doubled, mainly in new areas.

The plan from the TCC and WBOPRC going forward is another set of modelling and delay. I have worked in computer modelling and you can spend forever refining your data to massage it to any answer you predetermine.

There is included as attachment 2, a simplistic model of a tsunami wave from the data supplied by TCC. It is only an attempt to show what could happen. Any wave that reaches the TEL would be catastrophic for Papamoa.

A decision has to be made about escape routes. The time is now. Tsunamis are not predictable. And the task at hand remains the same. Delaying doesn’t change the scenario. 30,000 school children, residents, visitors, workers and shoppers must evacuate from the Papamoa area in one hour by foot to safe ground. This requires 24 hour a day paths and safe crossing routes across the TEL.

PRRA & ECA are proposing an escape path alongside the TEL to the safe crossings over the TEL, and the escape path is fed by finger paths from the housing areas. (See attachment 1)

I have just read of the planned construction of escape paths to assist emergency evacuation alongside the main road into Brighton, Christchurch. They also plan to close the road in an emergency to speed evacuations. This is a proactive response, and the same is needed in Tauranga. (See the attachment 3). Closing the main road is smart. Tauranga should close the TEL to make evacuating across the TEL easier for pedestrians. PRRA suggests this is included in all evacuation strategies.

PRRA sees two initial items to start the evacuation routes.

Item 1 is adding the Tsunami Escape Routes as proposed by the Eastern Corridor Alliance into the next Long Term Plan. These will also be cycling/walking routes.

Item 2 is closing the TEL once the Tsunami Evacuation Alert has been given.

The cost in dollars is small, around $25 million for item 1.

Kind regards,

Philip Brown Chairman PRRA

Cc

Stephen Selwood Commission

Bill Wasley Commission

Shadrach Rolleston Commission

Marty Grenfell CEO TCC

Jessica Andrews NZTA

Brendan Bisley TCC

Paula Naude TCC

Barbara Dempsey TCC

Clinton Naude BOP Emergency

Reply to Philip Brown PRRA regarding Tsunami Escape Routes Papamoa Area

Anne Tolley

Jul 25, 2023, 5:36 PM (8 days ago)

to me

Dear Philip

 Thank you for your email of 19 July asking that the provision of tsunami escape routes be included in Council’s 2024-34 long-term plan. Tauranga City Council (TCC) acknowledges the concern from Papamoa residents relating to tsunami evacuation routes and locations. 

TCC conducted a thorough study in 2015/2016, in collaboration with Tonkin +Taylor (T&T) and BECA, to analyse evacuation pathways along Tauranga’s coastline. The study analysed existing pathways and areas where new connections would help improve evacuation. The study identified 16 safe locations outside the modelled evacuation zones. To further improve evacuations, tsunami evacuation direction signs and safe location signs were installed, and tsunami evacuation bridges were designed and built in areas where crossing streams would enhance evacuation processes. 

Emergency Management prioritises utilising the latest information to make well-informed decisions during evacuations. Consequently, GNS Science has been commissioned by the Bay of Plenty Regional Council to develop a consistent tsunami model for the Bay of Plenty coastline. This initiative aims to provide the most accurate and reliable data to aid decision-making.  In addition, GNS Science is presently engaged in creating an evacuation model for the Papamoa coastline. The primary objective is to identify areas where the current evacuation plans may be inadequate, thus enabling targeted improvements. Once completed, TCC will audit current evacuation plans and consider options for improvements. 

The Emergency Management team continues to work with other Council departments to identify opportunities for further improvement in evacuation strategies, as was discussed with yourself and Kevin at a recent meeting with Barbara Dempsey and Paula Naudé.  At that meeting, TCC undertook to arrange a meeting with our transport team, with an invitation to be extended to yourselves to attend.  In addition, TCC has undertaken to provide updates to you as the internal teams works towards an outcome. 

TCC remains dedicated to continuing delivering education on emergency preparedness messages throughout the community, including schools, retirement villages and businesses. Educational resources are readily available on our Council website. 

In the meantime, we have asked staff to treat your email as an LTP submission, which you may choose to update during the submission period later this year. 

Kind regards 

Anne 

Anne Tolley | Commission Chair

Tauranga City Council | 07 577 7000 | Anne.tolley@tauranga.govt.nz | www.tauranga.govt.nz

July 2023: Letter from PRRA to Tauranga City Council requesting the Tsunami Escape Paths be included in the 2024 Long Term Plan. Response from TCC above. Click to read

Letters were also sent to Bluehaven requesting they provide a pedestrian link thru their land from the Papamoa East Interchange bridge to Bell Rd. Non commital response was received. This would bethe major escape route from the Sands area to safety.

Tonkin & Taylor Report on Tsunami Modelling Papamoa

( from the Tonkin & Taylor Report 2017)n See link above for full report. Where is all of this????

 “Would inundate parts of Mauao & Wairakei within 60mins. “

A pedestrian-based evacuation network was developed using the existing roading network, walkways, reserves and cycleways to reach safe areas. It was vital that evacuation stations could be reached quickly, on foot, as NZTA modelling revealed vehicular traffic would gridlock the roads within minutes. Footbridges along the evacuation route were designed and built to Importance Level 4. Sixteen safe assembly locations were developed at strategic points. Some use distance to keep residents safe, while Vertical Evacuation Stations employ the raising of land (earth bunds) and are the first of their kind to be constructed outside of Japan and Pacific North-West America.

In 2017, this project was officially recognised for excellence when it picked up the Civil Defence Emergency Management "Directors Award" for “exceptional innovation/creativity that has pushed the boundaries of current CDEM practice in NZ”.

June 2023 PRRA Meeting

Tsunami Escape Routes from Papamoa to Papamoa Hills. Excerpt from the Chairmans Address June 2023 Meeting.

 I would like to start tonight’s meeting with a Role Play. 

While you were coming here tonight for the meeting,  there was a large movement of the earth plates in the Kermadec Trench. One plate released itself from the overlying plate with the release of tremendous energy, producing a massive earthquake. This caused millions of tons of seabed to collapse into the Trench and this has produced a tsunami wall of water heading towards the NZ coast including Papamoa. You felt nothing, it was too far away.

It will take at least one hour for the Tsunami Emergency Mobile Alert team to assemble in Wellington. They will examine the data, work through some protocols, make a decision, probably need Ministerial input before an Emergency Warning can be issued to New Zealand via cellphone.  Time is going on.

If you have your cell phone on and close by, you will hear the unforgettable squawking noise the cell phone makes when this warning is given. 

You read the message in disbelief, is this real or a false positive.  You listen for the emergency sirens to confirm, after all 75% of NZ has emergency sirens, but Papamoa does not have emergency sirens. The previous council approved the sirens and the money was in the budget ready for installation. However, the commissioners canned the sirens. ??????

Already you can hear increased traffic on the road outside.  What to do, where to go, quick look up the council website for information;

“Walk to safety, roads will be gridlocked”.

Where is Safety , look at the coloured map of Papamoa on the council website. Papamoa is shaded in yellow or orange.  But, the expected tsunami water wall is 14-18m tall above sea level, Papamoa is 5-6 m above sea level and Papamoa is flat. What difference is an orange colour v the yellow colour.

NOV 2023 Note — Maps revised to show Papamoa under water.

Older Tsunami Maps before Nov 2023

We need to get to higher ground, to the Papamoa Hills on the other side of the TEL ( expressway).  How do we get there, where do we cross the expressway. It’s dark out there now.

Listening outside the traffic is stationary, gridlock has happened. The only escape is now on foot or by cycle.

There are no easy to find and easy to use pedestrian escape routes from Papamoa to the Papamoa Hills.  How is this possible, we have known about this risk for years. You can not believe this.  It is putting the population at high risk of death.

PRRA along with Eastern Corridor Alliance has put forward a plan of escape routes alongside the TEL fed by finger escape routes from the housing areas.  These can be built tomorrow. At a cost less than $25 million.

PRRA along with Eastern Corridor Alliance has put forward a plan of escape routes alongside the TEL and these can be built tomorrow. Here is a map, showing the escape paths in blue and the crossing over the expressway. The crossing at the Papamoa East Interchange by Papamoa Sands is incomplete and will NOT work.



Tsunami Sirens for Evacuation

May 2022. — The Commissioners have decided that Papamoa and the Mount will NOT have Tsunami Sirens for a whole lot of specious reasons. So what are we to do if a tsunami warning is given. All our roads run parallel to the beach.


The answer is in an old newspaper article from 2011. Now we know the escape routes. Good luck crossing the last stream to reach the Expressway.

BAY OF PLENTY TIMES

Bridges to offer tsunami escape for Papamoa

15 Jul, 2011 10:28 AM3 minutes to read

Bay of Plenty Times

A life-saving series of foot bridges offering an escape route from a killer tsunami are only a few months from being built at Papamoa.
The low-lying suburb has the additional peril of the Wairakei Stream creating a big obstacle to thousands of people fleeing a tsunami on foot.
Tauranga City Council has responded to the threat by agreeing to spend $200,000 building foot bridges at intervals along the stream to help people reach the safety of high ground.
The eight bridges will form a vital link along evacuation routes for those who felt their chances of survival were better served by leaving the car at home.
Council transportation operations manager Martin Parkes was this week checking potential locations.
The next step was to prioritise each site on the basis of which would get the most people out as quickly as possible.
Urgency has been added to the project by the scare last Thursday when a 7.6 magnitude earthquake in the Kermadecs sent a tsunami towards New Zealand, leaving little more than half an hour for Tauranga people to reach safety if the advisory from Civil Defence had turned out to be bad news.
The area under investigation stretches from the planned Sandhurst interchange with the Tauranga Eastern Link to the end of Papamoa East, with most of the focus on areas east of Domain Rd.
"We need to evacuate as many people as possible in one go."
The target was eight bridges across Wairakei Stream with construction to start early next year.
The next few weeks will be spent determining exactly where and what priority to give each location, followed by designing the foot bridges and then construction.
At present the closest high ground for most Papamoa people escaping a tsunami on foot was the Papamoa Hills, but all that would change when the Eastern Link motorway was built.
Once the motorway was finished in five years, Mr Parkes said people would not have to walk so far to feel relatively safe on a road two metres above ground level - involving a maximum distance of 1.5km for  residents.
Meanwhile, council investigations continue towards the target of getting tsunami warning sirens installed within two years.
Council planning engineer Barry Somers said he was in discussions with Bay's Emergency Management Group to ensure that whatever was installed would be compatible with sirens elsewhere in the region.
"We don't want to put something in that was completely out of step with everywhere else."
Once they had settled on the type of siren, they would prepare an acoustic plan, obtain resource consent and then install the sirens.
The council has budgeted nearly $400,000 for the sirens this year and intends to approach the Emergency Management Group for a contribution. A decision on funding the rest of the cost would be made by the council later this year.
Mr Somers said they would not know the actual cost until they had settled on the type of siren although Christchurch's network of sirens covering New Brighton and Lyttelton provided a good guide at $750,000.
The council intends to put sirens into the most at-risk area first - the northern end of Mount Maunganui where the lack of protective sand dunes saw the sea wash across the isthmus to Pilot Bay in the Wahine Storm of 1968.
"It is amazing how much protection is offered by sand dunes."

Tauranga's 20 year tsunami siren debate continues

Bay of Plenty Times

By Alisha Evans - Local Democracy Reporter

29 Apr, 2022

The community's 20-year fight for tsunami sirens has hit another road block. Tsunami sirens for Mount Maunganui and Pāpāmoa have been talked about for nearly 20 years but, despite having funding, the council wants to remove them from its work programme. In 2019 Tauranga City Council approved a budget for the sirens, something then-councillor Steve Morris was "really pleased" about. Morris has advocated for sirens for at least 12 years and thinks they should be a priority as a secondary warning system. Council has just finished consulting on the use of tsunami sirens as part of 2021-31 Long-term Plan.

$3.9 million with an ongoing cost of $209,000 per annum, according to the council. Morris said this was a small price for "critical, potentially lifesaving infrastructure". "I think it's a matter of priorities.

"The first thing is to actually understand what a siren is for and that is as a backup to the primary mechanism, which is the natural warning signs, and not to get bogged down in the bureaucratic arguments about it."

Council emergency management manager Paula Naude said there were pros and cons to tsunami sirens.

"International evidence shows us that the risks associated with community reliance on a siren to know when to evacuate can be more dangerous than no siren," she said."The best and most reliable warning system for local source tsunami in New Zealand is the natural warning." The natural warning is if an earthquake is long or strong people should evacuate and not wait for an alert.

"There have been advances in knowledge, data and technology since sirens were first discussed for Tauranga," Naude said. "Based on the best available information, it is no longer considered that sirens are the safest solution for our community." Emergency Management Bay of Plenty director Clinton Naude said the BOP Civil Defence Emergency Management Group did not regard sirens as an effective or a reliable alerting mechanism in local source tsunami events and there were no sirens in the region currently.

The Bay of Plenty CDEM group includes seven councils: Bay of Plenty Regional, Tauranga City, Western Bay of Plenty, Whakatāne, Kawerau, Ōpōtiki and Rotorua Lakes councils. Clinton Naude said some disadvantages of tsunami sirens were local source tsunamis could arrive within minutes, so there may not be time for an official warning.

"Sirens may also be damaged by the earthquake itself and therefore cannot be activated," he said. "Sirens are known to cause complacency, which undermines the most reliable warning system for local source tsunami - the natural warning itself."

He said if evacuation was needed alerting systems included the emergency mobile alert, radio, television, social media and loud hailers. Despite the other systems available, Morris said there was still community support for sirens. "What we found with Mount and Pāpāmoa residents in particular, is that they wanted, an addition to the text message system and knowing the early warning signs," he said. "They wanted to be alerted via public siren system as well."

In 2012, the Pāpāmoa Residents and Ratepayers Association set up temporary air raid sirens and conducted its own tests. Morris was chairman at the time. He said the sirens were widely heard in Mount Maunganui and Pāpāmoa.He said this "really annoyed" the council of the day, but it showed sirens could be widely heard. Current association chairman Philip Brown said the association thought sirens were essential.

"We've always asked for them," he said. "We always thought they are part of the mix of getting the warnings across and the evacuation message across, we've never deviated on that. "The fact that there are other high tech solutions coming along, we think sirens are a great complementary fit." When asked what he thought of removing sirens from the council's work programme, Brown replied: "Do they want to kill people?" He said there were limitations to the emergency mobile alert. "Not everyone has a cell phone, not everyone hears their cell phone. "Not everyone wakes up for their cell phone, but with a continuously sounding tsunami siren they will wake up."

He said there was no quick inland escape route for people in Mount Maunganui and Pāpāmoa so people needed as much warning as possible. Plans to install sirens along the Western Bay of Plenty coastline were launched in 2005 after the 2004 Boxing Day tsunami in Indonesia. In 2006, 10 sirens were tested between Waihi Beach and Pukehina, however, "black spots" were discovered where the sirens couldn't be heard.

Both Tauranga City Council and Bay of Plenty Civil Defence Emergency Management were unable to say if this resulted in sirens being installed due to a lack of "sufficient information". Morris wants to see action on siren installation rather than more consultation. "The dithering and dragging out has gone on way too long in my view."

Tauranga council ditches tsunami sirens plan, considered too unreliable

By

Kiri Gillespie

26 May, 2022 08:00 AM4 mins to read

Tauranga will have no tsunami sirens in the event of a natural disaster.

The question of whether or not Tauranga City Council should invest in a tsunami siren network along the district's coastline was brought up in a council meeting on Tuesday.

The council commission voted against the idea, opting to focus on tsunami education, awareness and supporting vulnerable community networks instead.

The decision was recommended by council staff, who stated in a report that most community feedback received during consultation through the Long-term Plan Amendment and Annual Plan 2022/23 agreed.

In her report to the council, emergency management manager Paula Naude said 78 per cent of 626 submissions were in favour of the council continuing to invest in education and awareness. Twenty-two per cent preferred the installation of tsunami sirens, which would have cost $3.9 million, plus another $209,000 a year to run.

Alert mechanisms already available to Tauranga included National Emergency Mobile Alerts and the Red Cross Hazards App plus the cellular network, social media platforms, and radio and television coverage, Naude said.

The Mount Main Beach was deserted after civil defence closed beaches because of a tsunami warning caused by an earthquake in Japan in 2011.

"Ongoing research to monitor any emerging alerting mechanisms or learnings from both regional and international events will also be implemented to ensure Tauranga City's alerting mechanisms continue to meet current standards and best practice," she said.

Council general manager of regulatory and compliance Barbara Dempsey told the meeting there was a lot of scientific evidence to show sirens were not necessarily effective.

"We are very supportive of where the consultation landed," she said.

"We've got lots of examples from overseas that [sirens] have let people down."

The best alert system of all was "natural" - if someone living near the coast felt a deep earthquake, they should evacuate.

Commission chairwoman Anne Tolley agreed and said if people were relying on being told to go, "it could be too late, especially in low lying areas".

Commissioner Shadrach Rolleston said the council would need to campaign to ensure the community knew how to act and respond.

In 2021, the council began a tsunami awareness project aimed at educating the community on its role in preparing for, responding to, and surviving a tsunami. Information supplied in the council report stated it could take between 40 and 75 minutes before Tauranga could make an informed decision about whether to issue an evacuation order.

The most devastating tsunami would take between 50 and 60 minutes to arrive after the initial earthquake.

The National Emergency Management Agency states on its website that a local source tsunami could arrive in minutes, meaning there would not be time for an official warning. It was for this reason it was important to recognise the natural warning signs and act quickly.

Tsunami siren test on Easter Sunday in Northland

By

Susan Botting

Local Democracy Reporter

24 Mar, 2021 05:00 AM4 mins to read

Whangārei's city centre's deserted after 15,000 people evacuated on March 5.

Tsunami sirens around Northland will be tested on Easter Sunday - almost a month to the day after being activated for real and tens of thousands of Northlanders evacuating to higher ground.

The tests are part of Northland Civil Defence regular business as usual six-monthly testing.
Victoria Harwood, Northland Civil Defence Emergency Management Group spokeswoman, said the sirens would sound for two minutes at noon on Sunday, April 4- in conjunction with the end of daylight saving.
"..These six-monthly checks are necessary to identify any faults and keep the network in good working order," Harwood said.

The region's 205 tsunami sirens will sound for less than a quarter of the time they are usually rung during regular twice-yearly testing - as a result of the region's real-life March 5 tsunami evacuation.
"Minimising the test time to two minutes - down from the usual 10 minutes plus a further 30 seconds - is an acknowledgement that some people remain unsettled by the sound of the sirens after the events of March 5," Harwood said.

Read More


The testing will also be done later in the day than usual, due to it taking place on Easter Sunday.
Northland's indoor tsunami sirens, synced to the outdoor tsunami siren network, will also be tested at the same time.
Harwood said it was important to note that because the Easter Sunday checking was a test rather than for real, tsunami siren testing would not include sending out emergency mobile alerts (EMAs) to Northlanders' phones.

The EMAs were a major March 5 tsunami evacuation notification tool sent out to thousands of mobile phones.
"That alerting platform is tested nationally and usually at the end of each year," Harwood said.

Northland tsunami test alerts will also be sent to users of the Red Cross Hazard app, which can be downloaded for free redcross.org.nz/what-we-do/in-new-zealand/disaster-management/hazard-app/

Northland's tsunami siren network is New Zealand's biggest. The sirens are funded and owned by Far North, Whangārei and Kaipara District Councils. They are operated in a partnership which also includes the two electricity networks Northpower (Whangārei and Kaipara) and Top Energy (Far North).

Harwood said Northland Civil Defence was working towards a $4.5 million tsunami siren network upgrade with the region's first sirens installed in 2007.
She said Northland tsunami sirens would eventually reach the end of their expected life. Northland Civil Defence was working on the upgrade which would use newer tsunami siren technology. This included being able to add voice messages and required actions to go with sounding sirens.

Harwood said the newer sirens could be heard from further away, meaning fewer sirens required as replacements.
Upgrade funding was currently being progressed through Northland councils' Long Term Plan (LTP) consultation processes, she said.
Tsunamis arriving in New Zealand are classified based on how far away they begin – distant, regional or local-source.

Tsunami evacuees at Waitangi Golf Course in the Bay of Islands on March 5.

Northlanders were part of New Zealand's biggest mass tsunami evacuation on March 5, after an 8.1 magnitude earthquake in the Kermadec Islands, about 1000km north-east of the country. A 1 to 3m tsunami was forecast.

This was a regional-source tsunami meaning it would typically take about one to three hours to reach New Zealand from its earthquake-caused starting point.

A local-source tsunami begins life on or very close to New Zealand's coast. The 2016 Kaikoura earthquake-generated local-source tsunami hit shore within 10 minutes.

Distant-source tsunamis take about a dozen hours to reach New Zealand. The 1960 distant source Chilean-generated tsunami's biggest waves took about 15 hours to arrive. This tsunami hit in Ahipara and elsewhere in New Zealand.
The Northland Civil Defence Plan ranks tsunamis among the region's major hazards. It ranks distant and regional-source tsunamis as Northland's fifth-highest ranked hazard with local-source tsunami the sixth-highest.

Harwood said Northlanders should continue to be aware of the risk posed by a real-life local-source tsunami generated on or close to the coast. This could arrive ahead of any official warnings.
"Everyone who spends time on the coast needs to know the natural warning signs of tsunami," Harwood said.
One was a strong earthquake that was hard to stand up in or lasted longer than a minute. Another was out-of-the ordinary sea behaviour, such as a sudden rise or fall and/or unusual sea noise.

It's just a drill: Tsunami sirens to be tested today across Auckland Region

By

Kirsty Wynn

25 Sep, 2022 10:45 AM3 mins to read

SaveShare

People by the water in Rodney and Waitakere should hear the updated tsunami sirens at midday today. Photo / File

People by the water in Waitakere and Rodney should hear tsunami warning sirens and voice instructions today as emergency alerts are tested.

The tsunami sirens - which will sound at midday today Sunday September 25 - have been recently updated and now include five loud "whoops" and voice instructions telling people what to do.

Civil Defence New Zealand said the Auckland Region had a network that was triggered in the event of a tsunami threat.

The team tested the network twice a year at the change of daylight saving and said the changing of clocks also served as a reminder to test their smoke alarms.

were also other ways the community would be warned if there was a tsunami threat including official warnings via Emergency Mobile Alert(EMA), radio, television or social media.

The areas in the testing zone include Omaha, Point Wells, Whangateau, Waiwera, Ōrewa in Rodney and Te Henga/Bethells Beach, Piha, Karekare, Huia, Little Huia, Whatipu, Te Atatū, and Herald Island.

WHAT DOES THE SIREN SOUND LIKE?

The tsunami sirens have been updated and will be a combination of alert sounds, and voice instructions on what you should do.

The voice message is deliberately recorded slowly to compensate for the reverberations and echoes that occur when using large public address systems in a wide-open space.

New tsunami siren pattern & test message:

"Attention Please. This is a test of the Auckland Emergency Management Tsunami Siren Network. The next sound you hear will be the standard emergency warning signal."

Siren tone (5x "whoops")

"In the event of a siren activation, follow the instructions that accompany this signal. Thank you."

Check and listen to the siren sound sample here

EVACUATION

In a tsunami emergency, always follow the instructions of the emergency services.

Create an emergency plan for your home and whānau and practice it so everyone knows what to do in an emergency and what you need to take if you are evacuating. If you need help with your plan, check out getready.govt.nz.

If you are asked to evacuate, please do so by moving to high ground or as far inland as you can, preferably without using your car. Practice evacuating with your whānau.

Stay in your safe area and listen to the radio for information. Do not return to your home unless the official 'All-Clear' message has been given. A tsunami is a series of waves, and the danger may take several hours to pass.

Only return to your home if it is safe to do so. Remember your home or neighbourhood may have been damaged.