Defence up to civil task

Whitebaiters were warned away from coastal South Wairarapa and commercial fishing boats at sea alerted to the threat of tsunami within an hour or so of a major earthquake in the Samoan Islands yesterday.
Civil defence volunteers stationed at strategic locations along the coast and in Palliser Bay swung into action before 8am, on instructions from civil defence officer Derek Theobald, alerting people in every nook and cranny of the rugged shoreline.
Chris Bargh was dispatched to Te Awaiti after a telephone call was received at civil defence headquarters from a Wellington caller worried about the safety of a family known to be camping close to the river mouth.
He patrolled the coastal area of Te Awaiti advising people in low- lying areas to pack up and move inland.
Ar Tora Mike Doyle was doing the same and at Ngawi Nigel Thompson notified all fishermen to take care while at sea.
Tubby Berridge at Whatarangi, Vern Elliott at Whangaimoana and Murray Nix at Lake Ferry took charge of their respective territories with Mr Nix concentrating on moving whitebaiters scooping for bait away from the mouth.
Mr Theobald said he was in close contact with Sergeant Kevin Basher, the police officer in charge of South Wairarapa and that every effort had been made to make sure civil defence measures were in hand throughout the district.
It had taken only a few minutes over an hour from the time the 8.3 magnitude hit Samoa to when the civil defence network in South Wairarapa was fully activated.
In mid morning latest reports were for a tidal wave of about a metre to hit the east coast of the North Island.
Mr Theobald said although that was well down on earlier predictions of a 3 m tidal wave, one of only half a metre was " well and truly big enough" to sweep people close to the shoreline off their feet and potentially out to sea.
At Lake Ferry Holiday Park proprietor Mary Tipoki said residents of the coastal settlement had been well versed by Mr Theobald and his civil defence staff as to what to do if a tsunami hit and would follow instructions if it came to pass.
Mrs Tipoki was at one time a civil defence co-ordinator at Whatarangi.
Later in the morning when only a 40cm tidal wave was recorded at East Cape Mr Theobald said it became evident the Wairarapa coast would not be affected to any noticeable degree.
He said the alert had been a great opportunity to test civil defence staff and the organisation had " worked brilliantly."
As far as Wairarapa is concerned tsunami scares have been relatively few and far between.
New Zealand, sheltered by the Australian land mass, dodged problems created by the massive Indonesia earthquake in 2004 that resulted in the Boxing Day tsunami that claimed the lives of 300,000 people in affected areas throughout the world.
About 50 years ago a tidal wave warning was activated that had Wairarapa people on edge as experts predicted an onslaught of seawater could strike Palliser Bay, inundating Lake Ferry and sweeping inland perhaps to the outskirts of Featherston.
The tidal wave never eventuated.