Cook Islands police say they have learnt from their mistakes during tsunami test
The Cook Islands police say they have learnt from their mistakes and will be better prepared following an international
test of tsunami preparedness involving twenty-nine countries in the Pacific
It took emergency officials over two hours from the time they were informed of the mock earthquake triggering tsunami
waves to inform local radio, television and print newsrooms.
Cook Islands television were given eight minutes warning whilst other areas were alerted after the tsunami would have
struck.
It was the first official international test of the warning procedures since the 2004 Boxing Day tsunami.
The Deputy Commissioner of Police in the Cook Islands, Ma’ara Tatava admits that human error was to blame for the slow
response.
“Yes, lessons learnt, in fact we should have been better prepared because we had a real one a couple of weeks ago and we
had our procedures in place, it’s just human error or people weren’t sure what they were supposed to be doing.”
The Deputy Commissioner of Police in the Cook Islands, Ma’ara Tatava