NZ Tsunami warning system patchy

[Grant]

Warning systems about possible tsunami heading to New Zealand are not consistent among the country's coastal communities, a natural disasters conference heard yesterday. Mike O'Leary, operations manager for the Ministry of Civil Defence and Emergency Management, told the conference that getting warning information down to community level was patchy.

Mr O'Leary was specifically referring to the civil defence emergency management groups which were responsible for disseminating national warnings to local communities. "That is our greatest vulnerability in New Zealand. There is a very patchy capability to do that across the country and in some cases it's not even identified."

Mr O'Leary said there were few proven and operating public alert systems such as sirens.

John Hamilton, the ministry's director, agreed systems were patchy and said a national working group had been set up to get some standardisation.

NZ's tsunami warning system 'inconsistent' - 19 Apr 2007 - NZ Herald: New Zealand and International Environment News