The tsunami siren discussion has been re-opened with the Tauranga City Council voting to direct staff to take another look at siren systems, on the back of text alert failures following the Kaikoura earthquake on November 14.
Tauranga City councillor Steve Morris' notice of motion wanting TCC staff to re-look at the siren issue and report back to councilors was unanimously adopted.
Staff are to present a paper on sirens for a future meeting, and the Government will be reminded on the need for a 24/7 emergency operations centre.
Many people didn't find out a tsunami text alert was sent following the Kaikoura earthquake until they turned on their phones the following morning, says Steve.
'It could have been any Civil Defence emergency; people were told but they didn't know,” says Steve.
Tauranga City Council backed out of the tsunami siren debate in 2013 upon it becoming known that tsunami warning sirens could not be turned on soon enough to warn Western Bay of Plenty residents.
It is estimated a tsunami generated by a large movement in the Kermadec Trench would reach Tauranga within an hour, and it would take that long for the scientists to consult the earthquake data and make a decision.
It would not give people meaningful time to get clear, which is why the council has since focused on the resilient community approach, or the ‘run for the hills' policy.
9 comments
sirens
Posted on 12-12-2016 14:27 | By mlangdon
Sirens are an absolute MUST WE DO NOT take our cell phones to bed with us and they are usually plugged in in another room at night, we should have a system of both txts and sirens, for goodness sake just GET ON WITH IT!!
Both, get both
Posted on 12-12-2016 15:49 | By Reefer
We need both sirens AND text alerts. in fact the more warning systems the better. Fire a cannon, launch the carrier pigeons. Why are people hung up on the on debate about one or the other? agree with previous post... just get on with it.
Typical Tauranga
Posted on 12-12-2016 16:27 | By BennyBenson
All anyone does is talk about things, nothing ever gets done unless its something of extreme importance like tidal stairs (rolls eyes)
News alert
Posted on 12-12-2016 17:07 | By flashmedallion
It seems the reopening of this debate and the voting occurred this morning, and yet I'm only hearing about it now. Its high time the new council gets serious about implementating Siren-Debate sirens so that citizens are not caught off-guard next time a debate or potential debate about sirens occurs.
Cell Phones at NIght - Dreamers
Posted on 12-12-2016 17:46 | By tabatha
The problem with alerts from mobile phones for a Tsunami warning is at present they do not distinguish between an ordinary message and an emergency message, hence the need for sirens and then we can check our mobile phones to see what we have to do.
Typical
Posted on 12-12-2016 20:37 | By Merlin
Typical council procrastination whilst they are eating there sausage rolls.Dignus extractum or in others words pull your fingers out and get on with it.
SOMEONE LOCALS ACTIVATE THE SIRENS
Posted on 12-12-2016 21:00 | By Colleen Spiro
Steve is saying that if there was a serious event in the Kermedecs, that it would take nearly an hour for the experts to make up their mind to send alerts.....surely locally, if you are knocked off your feet and shaking lasts more than a minute, then sirens could be activated locally to alert people of an event, so that they could decide for themselves if they wishes to evacuate.
Mlangdon
Posted on 13-12-2016 04:43 | By Kenworthlogger
So if your life depends on it take your cellphone to bed with you. Dont force everyone to pay for more warning systems because you cant be bothered to sleep with your phone....
The debate about cellphones
Posted on 13-12-2016 14:14 | By morepork
... is actually moot. People DON'T take their cellphones to bed with them and they are usually on charge somewhere else. What about people who don't USE a cellphone? (Gasps of shock, horror...). There are some and I am one. All the people here who are demanding that sirens be installed may sing a different tune once the false alarms and "tests" start happening... So what DO we do? Well, we use ALL communication channels available (phone texts, radio alerts, sirens if approved... and the problem then becomes not HOW we alert the population but WHEN. This comes down to technology. It won't work if we have some poor scientist looking at a seismograph and trying to decide whether there will be a Tsunami. We need ocean buoys that can detect the wave while it is still offshore and raise a satellite alarm for all affected countries.
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