Police have urged people not to call them when 70 Civil Defence sirens go off in Northland today.
The sirens would sound for 10 minutes at 9.20am and for 30 seconds at 10am and were part of a test of the tsunami warning system, said Inspector Kerry Watson, from the
police Northern Communications Centre in Auckland.
The Northern Regional Council said sirens in coastal areas in the Whangarei district would be tested.
The blue lights on the sirens would flash until the end of the second test.
"In an emergency this siren is a signal that a tsunami warning has been issued and people should seek information, listen to the radio or television, check the internet, check with neighbours," the council said on its website.
"Tsunami sirens and their strobe lights are just one part of a range of formal and informal warning systems, any one of which can alert people to a tsunami."
The council said when tsunami sirens sounded it "didn't necessarily mean you need to evacuate the area right away or even at all".
"They do mean you need to find out what the level of threat is. You can do this by turning on the TV or radio or visiting one of the websites below if you hear a siren."
Sirens would sound from Bland Bay north of Whangarei to Langs Beach at the southern end of Bream Bay.
Police said they were expecting some calls from people in the North but said it was not a real alert.
Yesterday the tsunami warning sirens in the Whangarei district were accidentally activated.
"There is no actual tsunami threat and no one is in danger," said police yesterday after the accidental activation.
- NZPA
