A resident on the Whangarei harbour is concerned that he didn't hear the sirens warning of a tsunami. This follows the reaction in the early hours of this morning to the earthquake in the South Island.
Sirens went off on the east coast of Northland early this morning warning of a tsunami.
“We were actually woken by a friend knocking on our door at 2am as he'd heard the sirens,” says Tamati Rakena (Ngapuhi), “So we got out of bed jumped in the truck and headed for the Whangarei airport in Onerahi and we were very scared.”
It also ended up being a rough sleep in a Whangarei carpark for an Israeli couple who were directed by their hotel manager in Paihia to leave.
“She told me, 'leave the checkout, just take the things, take yourself, put yourself in the car and go to the mountain [and] go up’,” says tourist Alon Silfin.
Te Kaea has heard that large numbers of families evacuated from their seaside homes on hearing the warnings but by 6.30am this morning the Civil Defence had lifted the tsunami warning for Northland.
However, Rakena still has concerns over the effectiveness of the warning system.
“Perhaps they could make them louder because it’s meant to be a warning for everybody,” says Rakena, “But when we got to the airport there weren't many people there considering this is coming off a large earthquake so I'm still somewhat dumbfounded about it."
