Napier City Council chief executive Wayne Jack has responded to criticism of Hawke's Bay Civil Defence after a tsunami alert in the early hours of Monday morning.
People took to social media this week to complain about mixed messages received as to the tsunami risk, and also that warning sirens had not been activated in the Napier red zone coastal areas after the 7.5 quake that caused devastation in the Kaikoura region, and significant damage to the Wellington CBD.
Former civil defence planner Joel Benjamin raised concerns about the lack of sirens, and the timing of warnings to evacuate, particularly in the Westshore and Ahuriri area.
In his capacity as the chair of the Chief Executive Group for HB Civil Defence, Mr Jack echoed comments made by local civil defence group controller Ian Macdonald that neither Hastings nor Napier actually had tsunami sirens, rather they had public alerting systems designed to warn people to seek further information.
The public alert sirens were not used at Westshore because of the low number of houses needing to evacuate, and to avoid a mass evacuation, which could have been life-threatening in itself, Mr Jack said.