IAEM Oceania

Source: Stuff.co.nz

Traffic cameras have been used to monitor the impact of the tsunami on Christchurch coastlines. Christchurch City Council civil defence staff used a traffic camera on Humphreys Drive to check water levels in the Estuary when the first wave – triggered by an earthquake near Samoa – reached Christchurch shores about 11.30am. A mobile traffic camera has also been positioned in Moncks Bay to record water levels in the Estuary throughout the day. Council civil defence manager Murray Sinclair said the water levels did not rise dramatically when the first wave hit.

Source: NZ Government

$1million to Samoa, Tonga for emergency relief

New Zealand is providing an initial $1million donation for immediate disaster relief efforts in Samoa and Tonga, Foreign Minister Murray McCully announced today.

"This initial contribution will help the governments of Samoa and Tonga to provide essential supplies and personnel to help those in need following the earthquake and tsunami," Mr McCully said.

It is good to see Telecom also taking measures to ensure that the offer won't overload telecommunication systems - which may be under load in the affected countries due to damage and increased traffic.

TELECOM SUPPORT FOLLOWING DISASTERS IN ASIA AND THE PACIFIC

1 October 2009

Telecom customers will not be charged for home phone calls to Samoa from midnight Tuesday until midnight Friday 2 October. Calls to Tonga will also not be charged from midnight Wednesday to midnight Friday.

Source: NZ Government

Minister calls for Civil Defence review

Civil Defence Minister John Carter has asked for a review into how the Civil Defence and Emergency Management ministry deals with tsunami alerts.

"Generally, the response to yesterday's tsunami warning was pretty good, but there are concerning reports about the ways in which some information was communicated to the public. Frankly, that is not good enough," says Mr Carter.

Source: Radio NZ Online

Samoa's disaster management office says more than 32,000 people have been affected in some way by the catastrophic earthquake and tsunami that struck in the South Pacific on Wednesday.

The office puts the confirmed death at 83, though it expects that will rise. In neighbouring American Samoa 24 people have perished and seven people died in Tonga in the aftermath of the 8.0 magnitude quake.

Vodafone has just announced via Twitter that they are making free off-peak calls available to Samoa over the next two days. Hattip to @ook and @dpfdpf

Calls to Samoa free from 6pm tonight for next two days on fixed and mobile with Vodafone. Our thoughts are with you, Samoa.

I believe 2degrees may have a similar deal in the offering.

Reports from various international aid agencies are available from this page on ReliefWeb.

Tide gauge chart

Detided gauge chart

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.