Editorial: A wave not to catch

OPINION: There's nothing like a tsunami warning to get people to the beach.

Yet again emergency officials have been left shaking their heads after hundreds of New Zealanders responded to a tsunami alert issued in the wake of the 8.8-magnitude earthquake in Chile on Saturday by heading for the shoreline. Others there already just plain ignored the warnings.

In the Waikato the Coromandel Peninsula's major beaches – including Pauanui, Whangamata, Waihi Beach, Whiritoa and Tairua – were officially closed on Sunday as the country went on alert. Lifeguards also patrolled the beaches from 7am to warn people away, but few took heed.

Alana Buchanan, who was kicking a rugby ball around with friends at Waihi Beach, summed up the feelings of many, telling our reporter that they didn't think a "quick swim would hurt". It could have done a lot worse.

Goran Erdevicki, who was building sandcastles with his young sons, said they first heard about the tsunami warning when they arrived at the beach about 11am. "We decided to take the chance and sit close to the shore so we can take a quick run for it if we need to. We are just keeping a watchful eye out for a big wave."

Other people said that they took the warnings with a grain of salt – that the civil emergency types have cried wolf too many times. That's plain lunacy. If a person came past you in the street and said someone was coming your way firing a gun, then you're not going to sit around and wait.

Strong tidal currents at Whitianga and Tairua were reported, while the water level surged 1.3 metres at Whitianga wharf. Elsewhere around the country, people were swept off rocks into the sea when they were hit by stronger, bigger waves. They survived.

The warning system is in place for an incredibly good reason. When the giant Indian Ocean earthquake struck on December 26, 2004, the tsunami it generated climbed to nearly 30 metres high in some areas and killed an estimated 230,000 people in 14 countries.

The world had seen nothing like it and was horrified; those poor people had no warning, but we did and those who did not take notice were foolish.Emergency Management director John Hamilton said there was a risk of the public becoming complacent as waves in the last two tsunami warnings were not sizeable. But that's no excuse for being blase. As he said: "I make no apologies for producing warnings, even although they may not eventuate to the worst degree that we could anticipate." It's an old axiom but a good one: always plan for the worst and hope for the best.

The alert system was heavily criticised for the way it communicated the tsunami threat in the wake of last September's Samoan earthquake, which killed more than 180 people in Samoa, American Samoa and Tonga. This this time it worked well – people just need listen.

- © Fairfax NZ News