Tsunami warning test broadcast request sent to media

Friday, 3 February 2017

A civil defence training group mix-up caused a tsunami warning broadcast request to be sent to media across the country.

In a training error, Civil Defence sent an urgent tsunami warning after a non-existent 8.7 magnitude earthquake.

The message asked for an immediate, national broadcast of a tsunami warning at 2.44pm.

The message was coded as priority 1 - an event of life-threatening or national significance.

However, the warning related to a fictitious 8.7-magnitude earthquake located south of the Fiji Islands that occurred at 10am on January 28, 2017.

* National tsunami warning system being announced shortly: John Key

* Earthquake: Large aftershock urgent warning criticised**

The broadcast message said the first wave could arrive in New Zealand in the vicinity of Gisborne about 12.23pm on January 28.

Six minutes later, at 2.50pm on Friday, another message was sent to media, asking for the termination of the broadcasting of the emergency announcement.

The email said the initial announcement was an 'exercise test'.

'THIS WAS A TEST ONLY MESSAGE', it read at the bottom of the email.

However, the initial request for emergency broadcast was never marked as a test.

A Ministry of Civil Defence & Emergency Management public information manager said the broadcast request was never supposed to be sent to media.

It was a test message, generated by a training group, she said.

Ministry of Civil Defence and Emergency Management director Sarah Stuart-Black said the error was picked up quickly and a cancellation message was issued within minutes.

'We are looking into the situation to understand how the error occurred and ensure it does not happen again,' Stuart-Black said.

Media are asked to verify messages with the ministry's public information manager before broadcasting an emergency announcement to ensure incorrect information is not broadcast in error.

In this case, the process worked well, she said.

WARNING SYSTEMS UNDER FIRE

Civil Defence recently came under fire after 'unacceptable' confusion with its tsunami warnings in the wake of November's Kaikoura 7.8-magnitude earthquake.

At the time residents in Napier, Wellington, Christchurch and Southland complained about mixed messages regarding the tsunami risk, with a lack of clarity around which areas needed to evacuate and why sirens were not sounded.

Acting Civil Defence Minister Gerry Brownlee signalled emergency management systems could be overhauled to ensure there was no repeat of the chaos which came after the quake struck.

Following the M7.8 quake the Civil Defence director said there was also information 'that was not factually correct' in a press release which warned of a large aftershock.

'The Ministry of Civil Defence is issuing an advisory regarding the possibility of large aftershock,' the press release, issued by West Coast Civil Defence on November 24, said.

Aftershock activity in the area had been 'suspiciously quiet', it said, saying 'there is a possibility of large aftershocks in the area designated by Geonet on their probability map'.

The statement was retracted and an apology was issued. Civil Defence said New Zealanders should listen to GeoNet scientists when it came to aftershock probabilities.

TESTING ERROR 'VERY SERIOUS'

Labour civil defence spokeswoman Clare Curran said while it was good testing was taking place, Friday's mistake was 'very serious'.

The 'botch-up' following the November quake showed there was no national warning system, which was a 'major issue', Curran said.

'The fact that there was a mistake made and a broadcast was made to media in real-time is serious.'

The false message could have been sent out to the public by media whose job it was to keep the public informed of safety risks.

'And for a country that feels quite on-edge at the moment, it's quite serious.'

The false warning demonstrated there were 'inadequate checks and balances'.

A series of official questions sent from Curran to Brownlee showed the review, promised by the minister before Christmas, was not yet underway.

In December Curran asked Brownless who would be conducting the review, what the terms of reference were, and what timeline had been assigned.

On January 24 she received the same answer to these questions - 'These decisions have not yet been made.'

However, Brownlee had received two reports regarding a public alerting system since the Kaikoura quake: Briefing 16/216 Public alerting system timeline and other tsunami warning enhancements, dated November 30, 2016. And Briefing 16/227 Public Alerting System: Accelerated timeline and talking points with Telcos, dated December 16, 2016.

Curran said the need for the review was urgent.