Maintaining lines of communication and finding any gaps in their planning will be just some of the outcomes Whanganui's emergency management team expects from a national exercise starting on Wednesday.
Exercise Tangaroa will test the country's readiness for and reaction to the impact of a tsunami. It takes place over three days with the next two days in September.
Emergency manager Matthew Smith said the Whanganui District Council's emergency operations centre will be activated for the day to practice procedures.
"We are treating this as a learning activity for our team, going through the revised tsunami evacuation zones, confirming communications with the emergency co-ordination centre at Horizons Regional Council and identifying any gaps in our planning," Mr Smith said.
He said while Whanganui has a lower risk of tsunami than many other coastal areas of New Zealand, any coastal area could be at risk. There are already a number of tsunami evacuation zones along the Whanganui coast with the main ones in the Castlecliff/Heads Rd area, Mowhanau and Airport/South Beach.