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Tsunami siren testing 1 April
Tsunami siren testing 1 April:
Yes, it's April Fool's
Day, no it's not a joke
12 March 2012
On Sunday 1 April 2012, daylight savings weekend, Whangarei and Kaipara District tsunami sirens will be tested in coastal and harbour locations along the east coast from Bland Bay in the north of the Whangarei District, south to Mangawhai Heads in the Kaipara District.
The sirens will sound for 10 minutes at 9.20am and again for 30 seconds at 10am on Sunday 1 April 2012 and their blue lights will flash throughout the period of the test.
"The biannual tsunami siren testing is
an opportunity to educate people about what to do when the
sirens are sounded," said Whangarei District Civil
Defence
Emergency Management Officer, Victoria
Randall.
The correct action for people to take when they
hear the siren is to turn on the radio, TV, computer or to
contact someone who can access these sources of
information, "On Sunday 1
April, people should not hear that there has been a tsunami
alert via the media sources mentioned, but just in case
there is a billion-to-one coincidence and the test coincides
with tsunami alert from the Ministry of Civil Defence,
people who tune in will be given the information they need,"
Victoria said. "People sometimes ask why a tsunami siren
doesn't automatically mean to evacuate the coast. Giving
people early warning that they need to seek information
helps to prevent panic, ensures the public are well informed
and ready to do what they should when instructions to
evacuate are given.
"New Zealand's Ministry of Civil
Defence and Emergency Management gets news out to all media
as soon as the possibility of a tsunami is known and we
advise our coastal emergency networks and emergency
services. At that point the tsunami sirens are activated to
tell people to seek information" Mrs Randall said there
are 14 coastal communities identified within the Whangarei
District. Each community has a Community Response Group,
made up of volunteers from within that community. The
group coordinators are the key contacts for civil defence
and each group has developed a community response plan.
These plans are used by communities during a response to a
civil defence event, including a tsunami. The community
response plans, evacuation zone maps and tsunami sirens are
tools Civil Defence use to alert and equip communities to
respond to a tsunami event. If you live on the Whangarei
District coast and would like to know more about your
nearest community response plan and evacuation zone maps,
please contact the Whangarei District Council Civil Defence
Emergency Management Officer. The network of 70 sirens is
managed by the Whangarei District Civil Defence Emergency
Management Officer and maintained and activated with the
assistance of Northpower using the existing ripple control
system, free of
charge. ends
to find out what is going on. Useful
websites to check for information are:
www.nrc.govt.nz/civildefence/
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