Civil Defence plays it safe after panic over tsunami

"Heightened sensitivity" led wary officials to issue a statement yesterday saying a large earthquake had happened in the Pacific, but there was no tsunami danger.

The magnitude 6.5 earthquake hit the Aleutian Islands off Alaska at 2.43pm (NZ time), prompting the Pacific Tsunami Warning Centre in Hawaii to issue a tsunami information bulletin at 2.52pm. Alaska is 11,593km from New Zealand.

The bulletin said no destructive tsunami threat existed in the Pacific.

The Ministry of Civil Defence and Emergency Management received the bulletin just before 3pm and issued a media statement at 3.25pm saying the earthquake had occurred but no tsunami warning had been issued for New Zealand and there was "no need for an operational response".

Director John Norton was quoted as saying the ministry issued the statement because "there is currently a heightened sensitivity around tsunami".

Civil Defence was heavily criticised when the Hawaiian centre issued a tsunami alert at 3.42am last Thursday for countries including New Zealand after a big earthquake in Tonga.

Within half an hour, international media were running the story, prompting hundreds of people to evacuate after calls from relatives abroad.

Civil Defence did not issue a statement until almost 7am, despite being told 15 minutes after the initial advisory that a tsunami threat no longer existed.

Mr Norton told the Herald last night that the ministry received at least 12 tsunami information bulletins, as opposed to advisories or warnings, from the centre each year. A magnitude 6.5 earthquake was the trigger for such a bulletin.

It was the first time the ministry had issued a media statement for such an event and "we do not expect to issue releases from similar-sized bulletins in the future where there is clearly no risk, but we will monitor demand".