Hmmmm, I've often thought that the "cry-wolf" syndrome will result in people taking less notice of warnings too.

What I can't understand is that we have been having earthquakes forever, but only now do we seem to hear about Tsunamis. It seems that every report of an earthquake is followed by a prediction of a Tsunami.

I actually think that NZ is in far more danger of having a massive earthquake of our own, rather than a Tsunami caused by another country's earthquake. But, of course, I'm no "expert" in these things!

Damned if you do, Damned if you dont it seems Colin. What do you think of the situation where if they DIDN'T go over board and a surge happened and someone paddling in the sea was swept away, or a few were killed, Civil Defence would be blasted for not telling us about the 'danger'.

I will admit I did get bored with the TVNZ half hour 'alerts' that were basically telling us nothing new, but it's a tricky thing to get right and better to have too much, just in case, than too little and then deaths?

PS If there were factual evidence of 200ft monster waves screaming towards NZ at breakneck speed, you would STILL have the idiots going down to the beach for a better view, unfortunately Idiots are not the only ones killed in natural disasters.

Well it was obvious this was coming.

Your editor say; "Go out there and write an angry blog about the stupidity of the Tsuanmi warning system Colin. Get some angry invecture going. Good for the site traffic."

So with that in mind: You and your editor are twits.

Tsunami's are a natural event casued by earthquakes. I'd rather be warned than wonder what happened. I'm sure you'll be feeling right smug when we have ZERO warning about the next one. What will your blog be then? "Oh the bloody CD should have warned us! Now my latte is all salty!"

Get a F'n grip Colin. Go blog about politics and leave the real world to those of us living in it.

What a lot of rubbish. I am surprised the editors of this website allowed you to write such an irresponsible and uninformed piece. Your glib dribble written hours after the event has passed does a massive dis-service to the many hundreds of people that were forced to analyse incomplete information and make decisions they know will affect thousands of people...it may also save their life!

Your lack of understanding of how tsunamis work is woeful as is your trite dismissal of the suffering of thousands of people that have been recently impacted by tsunamis.

Your 'article' written in glorious hindsight is pathetic opportunistic attempt to join the na-sayers and cynics that will waste the emergency services time by choosing to ignore the best information that is available, when the big decisions have to be made.

Your selfish and reckless thinking will cost lives one day.

I pretty much agree with you, Colin. There are some hysterical calls for people who ignore Council warnings to be fined. I'm ok with that, so long as people who are forced off beaches by Councils are entitled to sue the Councils for damages when nothing significant happens.

What NZ should be doing, IMO, is, first, modelling the sea floor effects so that transmissions across the Pacific from the various earthquake zones can be predicted properly and, second, modelling our exposed harbours and beaches to identify where tsunami effects are magnified by the coastal geography.

The tsunami sensors on Raoul Island and the Chatham Islands can then be used to give proper predictions of likely severity at any at risk locations.

Paul #3, it didn't take long for hysterical nonsense to flood into this blog, did it? Complete with angry invective.

You and people like you are the reason that New Zealand is bottom of the OECD, your mentality is pathetic, no one can predict what size the wave could or would be but it is better to be safe than sorry, next time we have an alert please Colin take your moronic friends down to the beach and if we are lucky the tsunami will be a big one and in one large wave we can improve the IQ of this country. You would be one of the first complaining if a large wave hits and you weren't warned in time.

Yes, sounds like the promised tsunami of political change we were supposed to get with the nacts. So far, apart from the usual dumpers, the only notable waves visible are coming from the national socialist spin doctors.

I think you might lost some respect of the public with this article. Just because a tsunami did not eventuate does not mean that evactuation was an over reaction. So, on what basis do you claim that it was unnecessary to evacuate people on Banks Peninsula? Or is this just a wild, unsupported claim?

If a tsunami had been coming, you would not have been "more likely to get struck by a car crossing the road to the beach. Or being struck by lightning" than being killed by the surging water. And this is very different to the everyday movements of the tide, with the movement of a volume of water that usually takes half a day to pass by rushing through in minutes.

Research, please, and try to understand how a tsunami, or tidal wave, works and what the various dangers are that accompany it.

And I agree with Paul #3, stick to politics.

This is the dumbest article I've ever read on Stuff.

You really don't know very much about tsunamis, do you? Go and do some research next time and stop causing damage.