Start of daylight saving prompts tsunami siren testing

Nicole Mathewson Reporter from The Press

Sunday (September 26) marks the beginning of daylight saving and is the day for testing of Christchurch's coastal tsunami sirens.

People near the coast should expect to hear tsunami sirens sounds for up to two minutes at 11am on Sunday.

“People shouldn’t be alarmed to hear the sirens going off and don’t need to evacuate," Christchurch City Council
acting head of Civil Defence and Emergency Management Rebecca Newton says.

"The testing of the sirens though is a good reminder to people in coastal and riverside areas that they should have an evacuation plan in place so that everyone in the family knows what to do and where to go if there is a tsunami evacuation.

“While we are likely to get advanced warning of a distance-source tsunami triggered by a large earthquake overseas, if a tsunami is triggered by a very large earthquake closer to New Zealand people may need to evacuate quickly so they should have an emergency bag at the ready."

In the event of a local or regional source tsunami, there may not be enough time to activate the warning sirens. In those circumstances, the most important warning is the earthquake itself, which is why people are encouraged to adhere to the national tsunami message – ‘Long or strong, get gone’, Newton says.

People can check Christchurch City Council's interactive online map to find out if by they live or work in a tsunami evacuation zone.