KEY POINTS:
The Bay of Plenty has a new tool in its arsenal of tsunami warning systems after a successful trial of helicopter-mounted loudspeakers.
Text messages started coming in as soon as "testing 1, 2, 3, 4, 5" started booming down to people under the path of the TrustPower TECT rescue helicopter at the weekend.
Within an hour of the 45-minute flight from Waihi Beach to Pukehina coming to an end, Civil Defence and Emergency Management operations manager Alan Pearce had received nearly 70 texts.
Mr Pearce said the public address system was primarily to alert people on the coast to move inland.
The Indonesian tsunami proved that moving as far as possible inland maximised the chances of survival.
"It is getting people away from where the threat is greatest, and that's the coastline."
Positioning himself at the end of the Mount Main Beach, he started hearing the sound test quite clearly when the helicopter was about 700m away.
It lasted until the noise of the helicopter drowned out the speakers about 150m out.
The flight showed the announcement was most clearly heard in the direction the speakers were facing, which was the direction the helicopter was flying.
Installing another pair of speakers facing inland would give more quadrant coverage, but Mr Pearce said a single pair of speakers was still pretty effective.
"I thought the test was effective in the form it is at - I'm encouraged."
The helicopter-mounted speakers add to existing warning systems including the Meerkat alarm network that was tested along the Main Beach a few weeks ago.
Mr Peace said the system needed refining to maximise efficiency. The test showed that a deeper voice was more effective through the ex-Japanese police helicopter speakers.
And although the efficiency of the speakers dissipated the further sideways people were from the helicopter, one text message was received from inside a house.
Hearing responses from people in the same street ranged from clear to faint.
Mr Pearce said it could only be part of a toolbox of measures because getting a helicopter aloft depended on the weather.
All systems were designed to alert people to tune in to their radio or TV to make an informed decision about evacuating away from the coast, rather than fleeing in a mindless panic, he said.
- Bay of Plenty Times
