Ōpōtiki District plans tsunami education campaign

A deserted Ōpōtiki on the day of the Tsunami alert. Photo / File

Opotiki Civil Defence is planning to run a tsunami education campaign following last month's national evacuation.

Following the evacuation civil defence staff have been approached by several groups including rest homes, schools and neighbourhood support to provide advice for tsunami evacuation planning.

As a result, local civil defence is now planning a district-wide education campaign to ensure everyone knows what to do should they need to evacuate again.

Ōpōtiki District Council planning and regulatory group manager Gerard McCormack told councillors at a recent meeting that a tsunami hikoi would be planned within the next two to three months.

This would include education on ensuring there was a safe place to evacuate to such as a friend's house, knowing about whanau or neighbours who might not be able to evacuate on their own, getaway kits, and walking rather than driving.

Not having a safe place to evacuate to was raised at the meeting.

Councillor David Moore noted about 1000 people evacuated to the Tablelands neighbourhood and there was no shelter or toilets for them to use.

McCormack said many people who were already safe also travelled to Tablelands to have a view of the tsunami as it came in.

He said people needed to be aware that when they evacuated, they might need to do so for several hours and they should make prior arrangement to evacuate somewhere with shelter and a toilet or prepare for the possibility they might have to go without.

Councillor Debi Hocart asked what the advice would be for parents who had children at school.

McCormack said they needed to trust that the school had a plan and would look after their children rather than going to pick them up which would block roads.

He said overall, civil defence was very happy with the Ōpōtiki district's response as most people evacuated.

However, people needed to remember that if an earthquake was long or strong, they needed to get gone and not wait for an official message.