Tsunami siren silence deafening

Pillans Point School pupils listen for the warning at Mt Maunganui's Main Beach. Picture / Alan Gibson

From Waihi Beach to Pukehina, people waited to hear the midday silence shattered.

At Mt Maunganui, a group of schoolchildren interrupted an outing to the beach to count down the seconds to the moment when they expected to hear an ear-splitting din.

One boy had even brought along a pair of earmuffs, expecting the noise of the tsunami warning system to be deafening.

Instead, he and many others were unable to hear anything from the 10 sirens spread across the Western Bay of Plenty, provoking criticism of yesterday's highly publicised test and casting doubt on the effectiveness of the new system.

Officials of the coastal region sprang into damage control after the 10-second activation of the sirens, saying the test's main purpose was to see if they were working.

"From our perspective, everything worked 100 per cent," said Barry Low, manager of Western Bay Emergency Management and Civil Defence.

But publication of the test in local and national media, prompted by a press release from the Tauranga District Council, had led many in the region to expect the sirens to blare into life - and provoked anger when they didn't.

"When you advertise something, you've got to do it properly," said Tania Young, one of several mothers accompanying Pillans Point School schoolchildren on their outing at Mt Maunganui's Main Beach. "If it's a tsunami warning, you should hear it anywhere. It's got to be powerful enough to get you out of bed," she said.

Another mother, Allison Kingsford, said officials may have wanted just to test the sirens with a quick burst, but hearing them would have made people feel safer.

Mr Low said the system would be tested again in three months and the sirens would sound for at least 30 seconds. This would allow Civil Defence to determine "dead areas" that potentially needed more sirens.

In a real tsunami, the sirens would sound continuously for 10 to 30 minutes, acting as a signal for people to turn on their radios and listen for further instructions.

Mt Maunganui mother of two Yvonne Curragh said a dependable warning system in the low-lying area was "hugely important".

The Tongan tsunami alert of two weeks ago highlighted Mt Maunganui's vulnerability.

"We're completely surrounded by water and we don't have a lot of options."