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A report on how yesterday's lahar was handled by emergency response teams will be compiled over the next few weeks but early evaluations are positive, Civil Defence Minister Rick Barker says.
He went to the Ruapehu District yesterday to check on damage caused by the lahar and said he was pleased how well measures put in place to deal with the event had worked.
The lahar burst a Mt Ruapehu crater-lake bank late yesterday morning and although the mud and debris flow put pressure on rail and road bridges below the mountain, damage appeared relatively minor.
Mr Barker told a press conference that early warning systems were activated and procedures such as alerting locals and closing roads had gone well.
"We put trust and faith in the engineers and the engineering solutions, and it appears that trust has been well placed.
"The warning systems worked as designed ... the alerts went to the rest of the community and people adopted the appropriate procedures," he said.
Mr Barker was questioned about the lack of updates on a lahar information phone line and lahar alert text messages that appeared to be slow to reach those who had signed for the service.
"We'll go through all of these things as time permits and I expect that in the next two or three weeks we'll have a much better report and will go through all the systems," he said.
"Those things that didn't work as well as we would have liked, we'll certainly pay attention to them and update them."
Mr Barker said the tephra dam on the crater lake would be examined by engineers today.
- NZPA
