'We need to lead' - Pāpāmoa councillor on tsunami response planning

Pāpāmoa ward councillor Steve Morris says more needs to be done regarding tsunami threats to the area. Photo / File

A Pāpāmoa councillor says Tauranga needs to stop waiting for a national consensus on tsunami warning systems, and just lead.

Some projects in the Tauranga City Council's tsunami response planning are in limbo while consultants carry out a review of the current proposals and risk modelling.

The review was prompted in part by new science by GNS that found that not all earthquakes were the same, and some that generate a tsunami may not give people the warning the official "long, strong, get gone" advice suggests.

"The science is changing," said emergency management senior advisor Julian Reweti.

Yesterday, councillors received a preliminary report about the state of various projects including sirens, in-home warning systems and evacuation route planning.

A final report and recommendations were due in June.

Last month, the council pulled out of a joint project with Thames-Coromandel District Council to assess the feasibility of in-home alerting devices.

The first stage of the project found the technology was feasible but had a raft of implementation issues including costs and ownership issues, according to the report.

At a national level, improving mobile phone alerting systems was the Government's focus and it was also important the council did not set itself up with a standalone system.

Some councillors were concerned about relying on mobile phones, which not all people had, could be off or on silent, and relied on a network that could be more vulnerable during a natural disaster than, for example, the radio network in-home devices relied on.

On sirens, the council's staff were investigating three types of modern electronic sirens that were loud enough to be heard even in homes with double glazing.

More evacuation bridges and vertical evacuation structures like the mound in Gordon Spratt Reserve were also on the cards, with the Government developing "design guidelines" for the latter.

Some councillors raised concerns about slow progress over the past decade towards actually installing local tsunami warning systems.

Councillor Steve Morris said: "We need to lead here and other people need to be consistent with us."

The official evacuation advice was fine but did not apply in all situations - sirens were needed as soon as possible.

"If there is a fire we don't say to people, 'if you can smell smoke leave the building'... then not install smoke alarms."

Councillor Terry Molloy said there had always been reasons when the council changed its mind but after 10 years it was time to make a decision and stick to it.