IAEM Oceania

Source: Stuff.co.nz

A number of vital agencies received confused warnings or no information at all from the Ministry of Civil Defence immediately following the Samoan earthquake and subsequent tsunami. The emergency response body has been criticised after local media and one airport were left in the dark yesterday... State broadcaster Radio New Zealand reported that a special phone hotline in its newsroom, specifically for civil defence emergencies, did not ring. Immediate inquiries were met with an answerphone which recommended ringing after 8am... Wellington Airport was not notified about the tsunami alerts and calls to the Ministry of Civil Defence and the local Emergency Management Office also drew blanks, said operations manager John Barnden.

In Rodney, Wellington and other parts of the lower North Island text messages did not work or were delayed. One Wellington resident said he had received three text messages in the middle of last night, which had been sent earlier in the day, warning of a tsunami alert for Lyall Bay.

Horizons Regional Council, which oversees an area that includes coastal regions from Wanganui to Horowhenua, has decided to dump the text alert system following yesterday's failure.

Mr Hamilton said the civil defence response wasn't bad but there would be a review... Civil Defence Minister John Carter said the response was not good enough.

Source: Manawatu Standard via Stuff.co.nz

The failure of a tsunami text alert system yesterday has seen Horizons Regional Council dump the warning service. About 400 people received a text nearly three hours after yesterday's tsunami was due to hit the region's shores. The warning text was delivered about 11.56: "Estimated wave East Cape and Mt Maunganui 1m-0922. Stay tuned to local media for more information." Horizons inherited the free text service last year when it took over Manawatu District Council's civil defence work, emergency services manager Shane Bayley said. Mr Bayley immediately cancelled the service run by OPTN after complaints came in about the glitch. "It's just not good enough."

It may be useful to refer to some reports and research undertaken last year as part of MCDEM's Tsunami Risk Management Programme. The CAENZ report contains a detailed review of different alerting technologies, and outlines some of the issues with SMS-based alerting.

The second Situation Report from OCHA is now publicly available. It was released at 2009-09-30 2000 Fiji time. The key details have been quoted below. A pdf is available for download.

Highlights/Key Priorities

• Death toll in Western Samoa has risen to 62 and is expected to rise
• Northern Tonga also affected with 6 confirmed dead. A State of Emergency has been declared for Niuatoputapu

Tide guages

Detided guages

Source: Radio New Zealand radio @ ~1740 NZDT

RNZ interviewed the Director of the Ministry of Civil Defence and Emergency Management about possible issues with the tsunami alerts received in the north of the North Island.

Source: NZ Government

Orion heads to Samoa, Hercules on stand-by

An Airforce P3 Orion is enroute to Samoa, and before dark may be able to join the coastal search for survivors of this morning's earthquake and tsunami, Foreign Minister Murray McCully said today.

"The Orion will join the search along the coast of Upolu, Savaii, and other islands, and also help assess damage to villages, roads and infrastructure," Mr McCully said.

Source: USGS

A brief list from USGS of the earthquakes that have occurred as part of this event to date (original last, newest top):

MAP 	5.0 	2009/09/30 02:47:27  	 -15.723 	-173.142  	10.0  	 TONGA
MAP 	4.7 	2009/09/30 02:39:08  	 -16.233 	-172.911  	10.0  	 SAMOA ISLANDS REGION
MAP 	5.0 	2009/09/30 02:29:34  	 -16.617 	-173.038  	10.0  	 TONGA
MAP 	5.1 	2009/09/30 01:39:50  	 -15.483 	-173.383  	10.0  	 TONGA

Source: Radio NZ news 1635 NZDT

Tonga is now reporting 10 fatalities.

Source: Voxy.co.nz

Experienced Red Cross humanitarian aid worker Douglas Clark will fly to Samoa as soon as possible to provide assistance to the Samoan Red Cross and enhance their ability to provide much needed help to the thousands of people affected by the large earthquake and subsequent tsunami that hit the Islands this morning.

Updated tide charts from Geonet. Note that Raoul Island doesn't appear to be reporting.

Tides

Detided