Residents seek upgrade of sirens
Groundswell of support in Coromandel for petition to not switch off tsunami sirens and rely on cellphone alerts
Give us our sirens — loud and clear, this was the message from the Coromandel’s east coast community at meetings to explain why tsunami sirens are being disconnected in September.
Civil Defence Controller Garry Towler and Fire and Emergency NZ managers presented their alternative alerting methods to Whitianga residents on Monday and Tairua, Pauanui and Whangamata¯ on Tuesday.
Those petitioning for sirens to be upgraded and not switched off have gathered more than 2000 signatures.
They are critical of what they see as the lack of communication and believe the council is putting too much reliance on mobile technology.
“They got it loud and clear that they want the community to be listened to,” says Linda Cholmondleysmith, who started the petition.
She said the community forums showed that Civil Defence has abandoned the mechanical sirens and was attempting to re-educate the public on a decision it had already made.
“It seems the most practical thing is a combination of sirens and technology. But technology fails. If we have a major [earthquake] the first thing that happens is the power goes out, there goes all your alerts by mobile phone.”
Cholmondley-smith has formally asked Thames Coromandel District Council (TCDC) to withdraw its advertising of “official” tsunami warning methods that omitted siren icons.
She said the exclusion of the siren and PA system symbols is a subtle way of suggesting these are no longer advocated nationally.
“Sirens are a way of public emergency alerting, which is supported by government,” she said.
Mayor Sandra Goudie said siren replacements came at a cost and she urged people to submit to the draft 10-year plan if they wished to see money spent this way.
The community’s opportunity to give feedback on TCDC’S draft Long Term Plan has closed, a day before the scheduled forums in Tairua, Pauanui and Whangamata¯.
However, Towler said the council may open another round of consultation on civil defence spending.
“The decision was made because we were given a choice — comply or disconnect. The council decided to disconnect. They made the decision, they didn’t see that consultation was going to change that,” he said.
Several ratepayers’ groups submitted on the point of tsunami sirens, and could represent their communities when they spoke at hearings.
TCDC has nine tsunami sirens, and had tsunami alerting devices on another 18 owned by Fire and Emergency
New Zealand.
The council’s estimate for upgrading to meet national siren compliance is between $5 million and $9m, for 45 sirens around the district.
Instead some $200,000 is tagged in the draft 10-year plan for a public education campaign and signage at beaches and highways telling people how to get notified of an emergency.
Towler said the disconnection of tsunami sirens was not part of the Long Term Plan, therefore the forums’ timing was always planned to follow the March 4 Emergency Management Committee meeting where the disconnection process was confirmed.
“If council were to decide to install new sirens that were compliant with national standards, that could be done through the Annual Plan for 2022-23.”
TCDC is advocating emergency messages to mobile phones when a situation seriously threatens life, health or property.
However the aged population of Thames-coromandel is a consistent theme among residents’ concerns.
Vickee Collins stood up at the Tairua meeting to say her elderly parents don’t own a mobile phone and do not want one.
“My concern is there’s only going to be one alert system, through the phone, once we lose our sirens.
“They don’t have a cellphone and are not intending to get one.”
A recent tsunami siren that sounded in the middle of the night had been effective in getting her elderly parents out of bed and to higher ground: “They heard the siren alert and they were gone before we could get to them.”
Tairua Ratepayers Association chair Jean Mccann told the meeting many people switched their phone off at night, and no alert would sound.
“In our area, there are hearing-, sight- and memory-impaired people and we’re talking one in five people,” added Joyce Birdsall of Tairua.
“Pauanui has the oldest age structure in the country, followed closely by Whangamata¯ and Tairua, and we would like you to keep that in mind.”
A 2019 Colmar Brunton survey found mobile alerts to be 70 per cent effective nationally but this dropped to 58 per cent for those aged over 65.
Pauanui Ratepayers Committee member David Yeomans is among those critical of the council’s decision to back mobile alerts over sirens, and its communication with communities.
Mr Yeomans believed too much emphasis was being put on mobile technology.
“I’m a great believer in watching for single points of failure,” he said.
FENZ national communications centre manager Gavin Travers said sirens were effective and key for alerting its volunteer firefighters to some 11,000 medical emergencies each year nationally.
When the siren was used for a tsunami alert, the fire service lost use of its siren “which we are a little uncomfortable with”.
“This programme of work suits everyone’s needs keeping control of the resources and being able to use them as they were intended to.
“I do appreciate there would be questions from the community point of view.”