A Western Bay tsunami warning system stretching from Waihi Beach to Pukehina is less than a month away from being tested. The 10-siren network will howl across nearly all the exposed coastal low-lying areas whenever tide gauges monitored by the Pacific Tsunami Warning Centre at Hawaii show a tsunami is headingour way. The system will mostly rely on existing sirens mounted on top of fire stations, although new sirens have been erected at Sulphur Point and Te Maunga. Western Bay's manager of emergency management Barry Low said sirens had been placed so they were mostly within 4km of all low-lying coastal areas _ better than the manufacturers' specifications of an 8km range in calm weather. But there was doubt about the end of Papamoa East where some residents say that development meant they could no longer hear the Papamoa Fire Station's volunteer call-out siren. Testing the new system would indicate whether this was a problem. If the siren was difficult to hear, Civil Defence would have to consider installing a siren at the end of Papamoa East. Another area being investigated for a siren was Te Puna. Unlike the short-duration single pitch siren that calls in Fire Service volunteers, the tsunami siren will have an undulating rise and fall howl that will last for 10 minutes, and then for another 10 minutes until Mr Low was satisfied. The sirens are located at Waihi Beach, Athenree, Katikati, Omokoroa, Sulphur Point, Te Maunga, Papamoa, Te Puke, Maketu and Pukehina. Mr Low said they struck a hitch introducing the system when they discovered there was a risk that not all the sirens would sound simultaneously by relying on radio control through the emergency channel. The channel was shared by police and the fire service and there was a chance that all the sirens might not receive the signal simultaneously if the channel was too busy. It led to the introduction of a tele-paging signal. Mr Low said the tele-paging system should be ready in about a fortnight. That would be followed by a publicity blitz about a test run so no-one thought it was the real thing.
