Neighbour will need to help neighbour in the event of disaster

The control room of the Western Bay of Plenty Civil Defence headquarters in Tauranga during the exercise yesterday. Picture / Alan Gibson

The room was hushed as Civil Defence controller Eric Newman stood to brief his troops.

"The ETA (estimated time of arrival) of the tsunami is one minute after midnight," the retired policeman told a roomful of emergency service and council representatives in Tauranga yesterday.

High on the walls of the Western Bay of Plenty District Council chambers were two large screens showing the Pacific Ocean, red marking the area closest to the epicentre of a magnitude 9.2 earthquake in Chile.

Lines resembling isobars showed a tsunami generated by the earthquake, at 10.14am NZT, would take about 12 hours to reach New Zealand. The chambers, built to withstand earthquakes and volcanic ash, become the district's Civil Defence headquarters in an emergency.

Yesterday, they were the scene of a regional response to an international real-time tsunami exercise.

"Intel" staff monitoring advisories from the Ministry of Civil Defence and Emergency Management in Wellington had marked low-lying coastal areas likely to be swamped by a giant wave on a map. Based on the latest advisory, the staff told Mr Newman at 3.15pm that a tsunami had passed Easter Island and measured 3m.

They calculated 53,000 people from Mt Maunganui to Pukehina Beach would need to move themselves out. "A big emphasis will be on neighbours helping neighbours," said operations and police area commander, Inspector Murray Lewis.

Mr Lewis said people unable to move out themselves could use a signal, such as a towel out the front window, to show they needed help.

Police, fire, fisheries and customs staff would assist with the evacuation, as well as independent contractors.

A priority was informing residents of three islands - Motiti, Mayor and Matakana - and ordering large ships at the Port of Tauranga out to sea.

Said Mr Newman: "Our experience tells us that the harbour will rise, almost empty, and come in again."

Traffic plans, including turning main roads into one-way escape routes to higher ground, were also discussed.

Public information officer Peter Hennessey said half-hourly updates would be issued to the media and people needed to turn on their radios as soon as they heard sirens.

A new tsunami warning system installed along the Bay of Plenty coast between Waihi and Pukehina beaches is to be tested today.

Mr Newman ended the meeting by ordering his staff to convene again at 4.45pm and saying he wanted the evacuation completed by 10.01pm, two hours before the tsunami's ETA.

Afterwards, he said if a tsunami was generated closer to New Zealand, planning and response would happen faster. "We wouldn't have the luxury of this time," he said.