Daylight Saving’s start means tsunami warning siren test

Christchurch’s tsunami warning siren system will be tested at 11am this Sunday 27 September 2015, with the 45 sirens sounding for up to three minutes. Each year the Christchurch City Council tests the coastal siren network on the Sundays that Daylight Saving begins and ends.

The sirens will only be heard within a few blocks of the beach along the coastline from Brooklands to Taylor’s Mistake, as these areas are most at risk from a possible tsunami.

This is the third year of testing for the sirens installed in 2011-12 at North New Brighton-Southshore, Ferrymead, Redcliffs, Moncks Bay and Taylor’s Mistake.

However it is the first test for new sirens installed this year at Brooklands, Spencerville, North-South New Brighton, Ferrymead, McCormacks Bay, Redcliffs, Moncks Bay, Sumner and Taylor’s Mistake.

Manager, Civil Defence and Emergency Management, Murray Sinclair says, “This is the ideal time to make sure you and your family have an evacuation plan, and that you have all your essential supplies ready.

“We are advising residents, especially those in areas where we are testing sirens for the first time, that this is just a test to make sure the system is working. By testing on the Sundays at the beginning and end of Daylight Saving, we are aiming to help coastal residents recognise that they need an evacuation plan in the unlikely event of a tsunami.”

The tsunami warning network is designed to forewarn of ‘distant source’ tsunamis that could take more than three hours to reach our coastline. If there were an actual tsunami, Civil Defence and the New Zealand Police services would alert residents using the sirens radio, TV and local community groups.

A comprehensive guide to tsunamis and the Christchurch and Banks Peninsula coastline is on the Christchurch City Council website.

ENDS

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