Tsunami alert delay 'unavoidable'

It took an hour for the first message about yesterday's Pacific tsunami to be posted on the Bay of Plenty's civil defence website - giving residents little more than half an hour's warning.
But the Bay's Emergency Management Group controller is making no apologies.
Warwick Murray said the Pacific Tsunami Warning Centre sent out its first message at 7.15am and it took until 8.10am for New Zealand Civil Defence's National Crisis Centre to gather its forces, analyse the data and announce there was a marine threat.
Once that was sent out to the regions, it took another five minutes to put the information on the Bay's website - at 8.15am.
Yesterday's reports indicated that by the time it was on the website, there would have been 37 minutes before the tsunami arrived at East Cape, and the Western Bay soon after that.
However, it was not felt along the Western Bay's coastline, with instruments on the Port of Tauranga's A-beacon off the harbour entrance not recording any surge at the time the tsunami was expected to arrive. It may have been noticed in tidal or current flows.
Mr Murray said national media were hooked into the Tsunami Warning Centre and the National Crisis Centre and, because time was of the essence, people heard the latest updates via the media first rather than the local civil defence website.
While there were issues about the exact nature of the message in the national media, the fact remained that the Bay's Emergency Management Group could not have announced whether there was a threat until at least five minutes after the media broadcast the news from the National Crisis Centre.
"All we can do is to pass on the information we have got."
Quizzed on whether the group should start putting information on its website from the Pacific Tsunami Warning Centre, he said the centre's first message was a heads-up that there had been a big earthquake and there may or may not have been a tsunami.
He said there was no point in posting anything earlier than the group did, because the media was aware of the first message from the warning centre and there was not a lot that the group could add.
The crucial message to get out to the public was whether or not a tsunami had been generated.
"Most media are plugged into the National Crisis Centre and the we can't add much except to put a local flavour on it," Mr Murray said.
"What we want is for as many media outlets as possible to tap straight into the National Crisis Centre and get the information straight from the horse's mouth."
Mr Murray was concerned at a complaint received by The Bay of Plenty Times that the Bay's Emergency Management Centre's automatic email messaging system did not get the first message out at 8.15am.
"If people did not get it, then we want to hear about it."'
The person, who spoke on condition they were not named, said he received no messages throughout the time of the alert, although his computer was operating normally.
"I rolled my eyes a bit, because every time there is a tsunami warning there is always conflicting information in the media, and I kind of just want some definitive information. It does not give you much faith."