Tauranga City Council has responded to concerns raised by the Papamoa community at a lack of tsunami sirens following Kaikoura's devastating 7.5 earthquake yesterday morning.
The quake prompted a tsunami alert for the coastal Bay area but many people slept through the Bay of Plenty Civil Defence text alert system. Concerned residents have since rallied to get tsunami sirens installed. Read more about the petition here.
Council manager of emergency management Paul Baunton said in response to Bay of Plenty Times queries that this was something it needed to address in conjunction with the work the Ministry of Civil Defence and Emergency Management was doing on public alert systems.
Tauranga City Council spent several years investigating tsunami siren systems, but changed course when it became apparent that the biggest tsunami that could hit our coastal suburbs would arrive before any sirens, or other alerting method, could be activated, Mr Baunton said.