The man in charge of Otago Civil Defence is throwing his weight behind calls for a fast-tracked national tsunami alerting system.
Chris Hawker, Otago Civil Defence and Emergency Management Group regional manager, said a combined system of cellphone text alerts, tsunami sirens or other technology was needed to communicate the warning as quickly as possible.
He made the comments while promising a review of Otago’s response to last month’s magnitude-7.8 earthquake and tsunami.
• Serious tsunamis a real possibility
His comments came as an ODT Insight investigation found concerns in coastal communities about the time taken to evacuate those most at risk.
Last month’s earthquake generated a 2.5m tsunami on the Kaikoura coast, with predictions of 1m-3m waves in Otago, although they did not occur.
Dunedin’s state of emergency was not declared until 3am — one-and-a-half hours after the first wave was expected to pass the Waitaki River and travel down the Otago coast, Mr Hawker confirmed.
The waves’ speed meant there was a real possibility residents in coastal settlements such as Aramoana could have been woken by a wave, rather than a warning, he said.
"Unfortunately, that is a reality."
Many Dunedin people slept through the earthquake and tsunami alert, and a handful were missed even when emergency services were sent into the danger zone to wake those at most risk, some residents said.
Others were sent into harm’s way, rather than away from it, while being directed to Civil Defence centres, residents said.
New Zealand Fire Service Otago and Southland assistant area commander Rodger Smith said, following discussions with Otago Civil Defence staff, it was agreed a review was needed.
While reluctant to detail his concerns ahead of the review, Mr Smith said the timeliness of the response, and the appropriateness of sending firefighters into harm’s way, needed to be reconsidered.
"That is a genuine concern."
Mr Hawker said many coastal communities did not have sirens and relied on volunteer firefighters to raise the alarm, but hard questions would need to be answered.
"Is that responsible on my part to put an engine full of volunteer firemen into the face of an oncoming tsunami wave?
"There are some pretty difficult questions we have to ask ourselves in a very short space of time."
Acting Civil Defence Minister Gerry Brownlee has also said problems with the Civil Defence response needed to be reviewed, and plans for a national text-based tsunami alert system would be accelerated.
Mr Hawker said he was "100% committed to supporting that process".
"We’ve got some things we need to resolve."
