Thunderstorms forecast for parts of North Island
A severe thunderstorm watch has been issued for Northland, Auckland, Great Barrier Island, Coromandel Peninsula, Waikato, Waitomo, and Taranaki. MetService meteorologist Mmathapelo Makgabutlane spoke to Charlotte Cook.
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RNZ News
a day ago
- RNZ News
Better prepare to help those displaced in natural disasters
A car submerged during the Auckland Anniversary floods in February 2023. Photo: Supplied Auckland Emergency Management has told the coroner's inquiry into 2023's deadly storms they're better prepared to help displaced people in a natural disaster. The inquest is looking into the 19 weather-related fatalities from the two storms nationwide, including three men who died in the months following the weather events. Hearings began in June, and this week continues to scrutinise the emergency response. Auckland Emergency Management (AEM) general manager Adam Maggs said they had now identified and fortified 132 venues, the majority of which were council owned buildings, to be used as Civil Defence Centres (CDC) should another natural disaster arise. A CDC is an evacuation centre where people can seek shelter and provisions during a natural disaster. "We work with Parks and Recreation facilities and we look at all the amenities that are within that facility," he said. "Depending on the type of hazards, so flooding is one bit, but if we had a tsunami or volcanic event we can now locate the most appropriate venue based on the services and amenities it provides. "Now, we've got a lot great visibility around flooding risk and the locations of our CDCs." Maggs said in addition to these potential CDC locations, 10 mobile caches were dispersed around the Auckland region, containing provisions such and food and bedding. Maggs said these changes had arisen after council faced major challenges on the day of the Auckland Anniversary floods on January 27th 2023. In particular was AEM's struggle to establish CDCs which were safe locations for evacuees to go during an emergency. "Coordinating the response on the 27 January 2023 faced a number of significant challenges," he said. "The Incident Management Team meetings had to be remote as a number of were outside of Auckland and the flooded roads meant asking people to travel to a physical location to coordinate the response could have put them in danger. "Standing up CDCs on the night was also a very complicated task as many council facilities that would normally be utilised were either unserviceable or could not be accessed due to flooded roads or flooding around the location. "Along with the response manager and logistics manager on the night, I was helping work with our community facilities team to try and find serviceable CDC locations. We did this until approximately 4am," Maggs said. He said the reason staff worked until the early hours of the morning was because of difficulties in reaching these locations because of roads flooding. "It didn't help that the Area Managers couldn't physically get on site, in several cases our response teams did reconnaissance trips in their vehicles and then were later able to identify, look you can't use that facility, it's not safe and we would go back to the drawing board." Maggs said some newly established CDCs had since been put to use, with AEM opening four CDCs during the response to this month's tsunami warning, providing shelter to people who live on boats. Auckland Emergency Management has also bolstered its full-time staff, now employing 45 people compared to the 33 of the 2023 storms while more than 500 volunteers have also been brought on. The Auckland phase of the inquest into the deaths of those who lost their lives during the two devastating and deadly storms of 2023 continues on Thursday. Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero , a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.
RNZ News
2 days ago
- RNZ News
NEMA identifies mobile phone alert problems during tsunami warning
Photo: RNZ The National Emergency Management Agency has revealed what caused people to get multiple alerts to their phones - or no alerts at all - during the tsunami scare caused by the 8.8 earthquake off Russia last month. The answer boils down to a combination of individual device settings, cell tower coverage and where the tsunami alert was sent - for example, those living far away from coastal areas were not included in the alerts. "We know explanations are little consolation for those who were awoken by alerts in the middle of the night," said NEMA director Civil Defence Emergency Management John Price in a review the agency released on Wednesday. "We are very sorry that this happened, and we're looking at ways to address this in future. However, we make no apologies for getting the message out to keep people safe." "NEMA only issued two alerts - at 4.13pm on 30 July and 6.30am on 31 July - but some people received multiple alerts during the night. We've discovered this is likely related to overnight software updates and device settings. "As for those who didn't receive alerts, tsunami alerts are only sent to coastal areas, so if you were inland then we didn't send you the message because you were not at risk." NEMA's John Price. Photo: RNZ / Samuel Rillstone Some people reported receiving up to 50 mobile alerts. Marlborough resident Terry Costello told RNZ he got the first alert on that Wednesday afternoon, followed by many more. "By the time I went to bed at 10pm, they were still going on and there'd been 32 of them by then. And I turned my phone off at 10pm and went to bed. And I turned it on again at 7am this morning and since then I've had another 16. So that's 48 altogether I've had." NEMA laid out several reasons why this might have happened: "As we don't have any control over how individual devices behave, we can't completely stop these issues from happening again - but we are looking at ways we can reduce their impact," Price said. Alerts use cell broadcast technology known as geotargeting to send alerts through cell towers in a selected area which can be the entire country or down to a small section of a city. "We identify the cell towers from all three telecommunications companies in the hazard area, draw a shape around them, and send the message to the area inside that shape," Price said. Some reported not getting the alerts at the same time as others. People might have received the 4.13pm or 6.30am alerts later because they entered the broadcast area. "We continued to transmit these alert broadcasts for several hours. This was so people entering the area later still got them. You might have got an alert when commuting home at 5.30pm, or into work at 8am. An emergency alert sent on Thursday, warning of strong currents and surges following the Russia earthquake. Photo: RNZ "The most likely answer is that you were outside the coastal areas we sent the alert to. But then you entered the broadcast zone at a later time, triggering the alert on your phone." If a person's phone was off or in flight mode they would receive the alert once it was turned back on. Some may not have gotten an alert at all during the tsunami scare, but that could be because it was aimed only at coastal regions - which admittedly covers most of the country, but not all of it, Price said. "Do you live in Hamilton? Palmerston North? Geraldine? Or perhaps an inland suburb of a coastal city? Then don't worry - we never sent it to you." In some households, there were reports that one person got the alert but another person did not. This is typically due to being on the border of the geotargeted broadcast area, Price said. "The geotargeted areas aren't a clean border. It depends on where the cell towers are and how far they transmit. "If some people in your household get the alert and others don't, you're probably right on the border and those who didn't get the alert may have a different network provider or are connected to a different cell tower than those who did." NEMA also has a section on their website where people can troubleshoot issues with alerts. The second tsunami alert that came at 6.30am on 31 July also drew a lot of criticism at the time on social media, with one person on Reddit calling it "an anxiety inducing alarm clock". However, NEMA said it has a statutory responsibility to warn of the ongoing risks as people began their day. NEMA chief executive Dave Gawn defended the early hour, writing in an editorial that "this is where the tough decision making comes in". "We knew we would wake some people up. We knew there'd be criticism. But we also knew the tsunami activity - while not spectacular or scary to witness - posed a grave risk to every one of those people. "We're hard-wired in our profession to plan for the worst case scenario. Imagine if a mother or father - having not received any alerts since the previous afternoon - assumed the threat had passed. Later that morning, they take their toddler to the beach for a paddle, only to helplessly watch their child get swept away by a fierce current." The magnitude 8.8 Russia earthquake caused tsunami alerts around the Pacific. Photo: AFP People cannot opt out of the mobile alerts, and the only way to avoid them is turning off your phone entirely or putting it in airplane mode. Price said that despite the kinks in last month's tsunami alert, NEMA had confidence in the system overall. "The good news is that there is no problem with the systems we use to send the messages," he said. "The alerts were effective in reaching the targeted coastal areas and getting the message out to stay away of the water while dangerous tsunami activity was happening. "We sent alerts to over three million mobile devices around the country, and when you consider the sheer variety of makes, models, and software, it's inevitable some variations will emerge at the receiver end. "After every emergency, we debrief to identify what went well and what needs to improve. We're working through this now to ensure we're doing the best we can at keeping people safe from tsunami and other threats." NEMA said they are still analysing the tsunami event and have not yet identified any potential changes in the system they may make. Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero , a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.
RNZ News
2 days ago
- RNZ News
Bluebridge cancels two sailings due to conditions in Cook Strait
Photo: RNZ / Samuel Rillstone Bluebridge has cancelled two sailings on Wednesday due to rough conditions on Cook Strait. The service says its 1.30pm sailing this afternoon from Wellington and its 7.15pm ferry from Picton have been affected. Interislander sailings are going ahead as normal. Bluebridge says all affected customers have been notified. Several Cook Strait ferries were cancelled on Tuesday with a strong southerly weather system forecast to bring large swells to Cook Strait. The sailings of both Bluebridge and Interislander were affected. MetService also issued a strong wind watch for Wellington for Tuesday afternoon, with southerly winds forecast to approach severe gale in exposed areas. There is no similar warning in place for today. ⬆️The cold southerly flow is driving most of the shower cloud onto northern Hawkes Bay and Tairāwhiti Gisborne late this morning. Check weather radar here And all your forecasts Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero , a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.
