New emergency siren for coastal communities

A new Civil Defence emergency warning system is to be trialled again in the coastal communities of Haumoana, Te Awanga and Clifton this Sunday.

In the event of an emergency, vehicles would be equipped with a siren and loud speakers and travel around the roads of the communities, broadcasting the Civil Defence sting followed by a voice message.

Civil Defence Controller Mike Maguire says “the new warning system has been developed after the communities approached Council over concerns about receiving warnings of an impending tsunami”.

“ A system was borrowed from the Wellington City Council in September last year for a test at Haumoana school and the information obtained from that exercise has been used in the design of the local unit” Mr Maguire says.

“The new portable system is to undergo further testing outdoors, between 11am and 1pm on Sunday April 3rd with the sting and voice message expected to be heard at a range of 300 metres from the vehicle”.

Mike Maguire says “mobile systems are more cost effective, as they are cheaper to establish and have low ongoing maintenance costs, compared to fixed installations which are exposed to the elements. A voice message combined with a siren tone also caters for visitors to the area, where fixed tone siren only systems do not”.

Once the effectiveness of the new warning system has been determined, more systems are expected to be built, giving greater coverage around the Hastings district.

Civil Defence wants residents in the coastal communities to report on the effectiveness of the warning system following the test on Sunday, by going to www.hastingsdc.govt.nz and following the Civil Defence link, or by filling out and returning the leaflet which was placed in letterboxes..