Being prepared highlighted in tsunami emergency

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JULIA WADE

Following on from the March 5 Kermadec Islands earthquake and tsunami alert, which saw Mangawhai residents quickly abandon their morning routine to seek higher ground, authorities say the event was a good reminder about the importance of being prepared for potential disasters.

With the Northland Civil Defense (NCD) alarm first sounding at 8.45am and the all clear given at 1.45pm, many were left high-and-dry for the five hours. Although there were numerous reports of neighbours, clubs and individuals kindly opening their homes, providing food, drinking water and toilet facilities to the stranded, Wellsford and Mangawhai Sergeant Rainer Coetzee says the event is ‘a learning opportunity’.

“When people headed for the hills they probably thought it would be for only an hour or two and left without water and food. However, the emergency did drag on for quite a few hours, so everyone needs to plan for the long haul for future alerts.”

Coetzee also advises locals to know the location of surrounding evacuation sites as well as where their homes lie on the Civil Defence red, yellow or green Tsunami Evacuation Zones, which shows different areas that are required to evacuate.

“Overall though, everyone did pretty well with their response, we’re pretty impressed.”

NCD Emergency Management Group’s public information manager Murray Soljak says the zones have been the ‘top learning’ from the experience.

“The zones are set up to give options in evacuating, however on the day, due to the lack of certainty and short time frame for the arrival of any waves, we opted to evacuate all the zones which wasn’t as clear to people as we anticipated,” he says. “Looking forward, the biggest point we want people to take on is to know where the zones are as there were probably people on the roads that didn’t need to evacuate and also taking a more complicated route to higher ground than they needed to.”

Knowing where to go and the quickest route to higher ground from home or workplace is vital, and although some people understandably will have to travel by vehicle, Soljak says where possible it is best to walk, run or bike to safety.

“If people are aware of safe high land, close to where they live or work, that helps to ease personal stress as well as helps to reduce the number of people on the roads who think they have to evacuate but actually don’t need to.”

Another general learning across Northland to reduce traffic congestion when the emergency alert rings out, is for parents to resist rushing to schools to pick up their children.

“We completely understand it is natural for parents to want to go to their children, but it is actually far better to allow the schools to complete their evacuation processes than have more cars on the road picking up kids individually. It also can add confusion for the teachers as they have to keep track of who they’re still responsible for and who has

gone,” Soljak says. “This is something families can work through themselves, so having a plan will make it less stressful on future events.”

NCD also recommend having a prepared ‘grab bag’ for each family member containing water, snacks, first aid kit, necessary medication, torches, radio and batteries as well as copies of important documents and photo ID, stored in an ‘easy-to-grab’ location.

Similar bags are also advised to store in vehicles and work places with emergency home kits to contain enough drinking water for everyone in the household for at least three days, long-lasting food as well as for pets, and toilet paper.

“By and large what we saw was empty streets and people on hills, the emergency mobile phone alerts really helped people understand the nature of the threat and what was happening, everyone took the evacuation very seriously,” Soljak says. “Other than the traffic congestion in some places, it was an exemplary evacuation for such a short notice event.”

n For more information and details on what should be included in emergency packs, visit Northland Civil Defence website or getready.govt.nz/prepared/household/supplies

 

REMEMBER: · Be prepared · Respect the warnings · Know your evacuation zone · Know your quickest way to higher ground · Don’t evacuate if you don’t need to · Resist rushing to schools, let them evacuate · Prepare a grab bag for each family member · Don’t use your car if you don’t have to; walk, run or cycle

 

Quake shakes earthquake monitoring gear Located 800–1000 km off the North Island’s eastern coastline, the seismically active Kermadec Islands are the visible peaks of the longest underwater volcanic chain in the world and follow a faultline running from east cape to just short of Samoa. The Kermadec trench is also said to be the world’s second deepest ocean trench with a depth of more than 10km. Arrival time of the first waves from the Kermadecs to Northland ranges between one to two hours says Northland Civil Defence public information manager Murray Soljack ‘and that’s from quake time, not from when we’re notified’. “So we can potentially end up short of time to warn people, and there’s always a trade-off between waiting for more information and certainty, and giving people the maximum amount of time to get to safety. In a Kermadec event we will always be facing that kind of an equation.” Due to their activity, GeoNet Science (GNS) monitor the Kermadecs, although fortunately there was no one present on the islands on March 5. Unfortunately, the quakes were powerful enough to wrench the equipment from its secure holdings, leaving communication cables disconnected and causing all data of the activity to be lost. “The information from the GNS is one of the best sources we have of what is going on in the islands and we were without that information,” Soljak says. “This is the context of what we faced with the earthquakes and we certainly understand why some people felt like there was a lack of clear information in the initial hours on the day.” GNS staff returned to the islands on March 10 to repair and reinstall the equipment and data communications link. The Kermadec environment is said to be unique and pristine, and home to a large range of wildlife including endangered turtles. In 1937 the islands were declared a nature sanctuary with the surrounding waters becoming one of New Zealand’s largest marine reserves in 1990. In 2015 the National party, led by John Key, tried to create the ‘Kermadec Ocean Sanctuary’ but unfortunately faced opposition from fishing companies, iwi bodies and other political parties. To date, the bill is still awaiting a second parliament reading. REPORTING/JULIA WADE

 

“Overall though, everyone did pretty well with their response, we’re pretty impressed.”

- Murray Soljak, Northland Civil defence

 

Dozens of Mangawhai residents line Coal Hill Road in an effort to get to higher ground. PHOTO/JULIA WADE

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