Emergency planners tap into awareness caused by tsunami false alarm

Western Bay of Plenty councillor Monique Lints and Te Puke Community Board chairman Richard Crawford, who are both members of the Te Puke Community Response team. 24 January 2020 Bay of Plenty Times P

Sirens that recently prompted uncertainty and evacuations may have been a false alarm, but they have highlighted the importance of emergency planning.

The sirens activated at various places with the Western Bay on January 19, including Te Puke, have prompted Te Puke's Community Response Team to harness the heightened awareness it caused to let people know about the importance of planning not just for a tsunami, but for any emergency situation.

A public meeting has been arranged for February 4.

Western Bay of Plenty councillor Monique Lints and Te Puke Community Board chairman Richard Crawford both sit on the team.

''I had friends who evacuated from Pāpāmoa and Facebook blew up. I rang friends and said get out because our information was it wasn't a false alarm.''

Richard, who is also a volunteer fire fighter, realised the siren wasn't a normal fire call as it was constant, so went to the fire station.

''People were driving up to the station wanting to know what was going on — it had a whole community-wide effect.''

A tsunami is one of the hazards identified in the team's Guide to Emergencies, document.
Monique says people wouldn't necessarily be directly affected by a tsunami.

''But we would have a big population increase of people coming from Pāpāmoa.''

''[Te Puke] would be a place of refuge and that means resources — we would need to have a lot of resources kick in,'' says Richard.

The team was first put together in July 2017 and produced the document in the following December.

Whole there was public consultation, Monique says the public were not necessarily engaged in the planning.

''People have a real disconnection with being prepared - they may not be aware of what's going on behind the scenes, but they need to be prepared as a family. Everybody should have a kit ready — that's the message we need to get out, but if people do want to be involved, then that's the reason for the public meeting.''

Richard says there were positives from the false alarm.

''The siren thing will never happen again, but it has brought to our attention, if that was real, how did everybody fare? We can activate our community plan to another level now with this experience and we can use this, because it's got people's attention to help us be prepared as a town.''

One key area is to find out what resources there are in Te Puke that can be tapped into if they are needed.

''It is going to affect everyone in our community. Whatever their background mother nature's going to take over and we need to be prepared,'' says Monique.

The meeting will take place in the Settlers Lounge in Te Puke Memorial Hall at 7pm on February 4.