The latest
tsunami warnings, which were sent throughout the country, shows just how far the Tauranga Council are out of caring for the community.
Here we have the council spending millions on tidal steps in downtown Tauranga whilst the dangers from tsunamis, which threaten a large area of Tauranga, are very real for the community.
After many years of doing very little, we are no further advanced in keeping the residents of Tauranga safe from any such tsunami.
Why can't really powerful sirens (similar to the air raid sirens in the wars) be installed on every cellphone tower in the high-risk areas and make this a condition of putting up the towers?
No doubt the council will be blaming everyone else should we be unfortunate enough to be hit by a tsunami in the future.
Ross Darrall, Mount Maunganui
Fearful action
Today I have received an email to sign a petition and seen the news that there is a new surge of demands for tsunami sirens to be installed along Papamoa.
Fear can be a terrible thing.
It can take over our lives and increase our belief that we need to protect at all costs.
Sure, we must take precautions, but after having been in one unneeded evacuation in the Coromandel and happily having slept through this last one, I would prefer not to have sirens waking me up in the middle of the night.
The only time I will need to respond is if I am woken by the earthquake itself and then I can switch on the radio and see what is going on and make an informed decision myself.
Richard Vialoux, Papamoa
Urgent need
The recent Gisborne earthquake was a red alert and now we have yet another major 7.8 earthquake centred on Kaikoura (with tsunami alerts) reinforcing that Mount/Papamoa urgently needs tsunami/disaster alarm sirens that work.
Warnings, no matter how prompt, are no good without disaster alarms in place.
Bay residents must ignore mucking around with Tauranga City Council and go straight to the community funders seeking a $250,000 grant to install 12 fit-for-purpose air-raid type sirens.
No RMA consents would be required if sited properly and these sirens would give the Mount/Papamoa residents an excellent disaster warning system. The council has done nothing for more than five years.
Get on with the installation urgently, because bridges to nowhere aren't the solution and some of us don't want to go to a watery grave.
To enable appropriate responses, warning systems need to be in place otherwise people won't even know there is a disaster, let alone access the evacuation routes.
Doing nothing about practical disaster alarm sirens is not the answer or a viable option.
(Abridged)
SL Paterson, Arataki
