On Monday morning I woke up, took a stretch, had a yawn, ambled out of bed, then thought: ‘Oh I better check my phone'. There was four Civil Defence messages from 2am onwards alerting me to run for the hills because of a tsunami threat, right down to it being downgraded and withdrawn. How the hell is a text-message alert system suppose to save lives? People don't wake to texts, others turn phones off at night or let the phone battery go flat. The text message alert system is total waste of time, money and resources. Sirens are needed.

K Morland, Katikati.