Civil Defence tests sirens to mark flooding anniversary

Western Bay of Plenty Civil Defence plans to mark the anniversary of the May 18 floods by testing its new tsunami warning system.

It was completed two months ago after the project became a priority following the 2004 Boxing Day tsunami.

The system uses 10 sirens located across the low-lying Western Bay. On May 18, the warning will sound for 10 seconds at noon.

Barry Low, the area manager of emergency management, said the purpose of the test was two-fold - to ensure the system worked and to commemorate last year's floods.

The test will come two weeks after a tsunami alert triggered by a giant earthquake near Tonga resulted in some residents of the Bay of Plenty and other coastal areas voluntarily evacuating their homes.

The warning system mostly uses existing sirens at fire stations, with two new sirens installed at Sulphur Point and Te Maunga in Tauranga.

The others are at Waihi Beach, Athenree, Katikati, Omokoroa, Papamoa, Te Puke, Maketu and Pukehina.

In a real tsunami, the sirens would sound for 10 minutes, the signal to turn on the radio for more information and head for higher ground. In most places in the Western Bay, that means 35m above sea level or at least 1.5km inland.

In addition to the Western-Bay test, an international tsunami-warning exercise involving countries around the Pacific will be held on May 17.

The "Pacific Wave" exercise, aimed at improving preparedness and warning arrangements, will be simulated in the National Crisis Management Centre at Parliament and regional emergency operations centres, and will not involve actual public warnings or evacuations.

It will run for eight hours, beginning with a simulated alert from the US Tsunami Warning Centre in Hawaii of a large earthquake off South America.

New Zealand has been affected by more than 40 tsunami in the past 165 years. Three - in 1868, 1877, and 1960 - were generated by large earthquakes in South America.