Those with weather alerts enabled via the BOM (Bureau of Meteorology) app would’ve experienced a brief shock as two notifications for Tsunami warnings were given today, followed shortly after by cancellations.
The alerts recorded an 8.2 underwater earthquake at 10 am, today on the west coast, south island of New Zealand, reporting the potential to cause a tsunami threat to Australia.
Notifications from the weather app listed Bundook – a town some 60 km West inland from the coast – and Brookvale as danger zones at around 11 am this morning, with a cancellation notification disregarding the warnings minutes after.
While the details themselves stated they were a test, the initial notification on people’s phones did not indicate it was a drill, which caused widespread concern.
The BOM released a statement shortly to apologise for the confusion.
“There is NO tsunami threat to Australia,” their statement begs .
“The Bureau of Meteorology today (Wednesday 25 September 2024) issued test posts on the BOM Weather app between 11AM-12PM AEST. This was planned as part of the transition to new tsunami early warning system software.
“The Bureau acknowledges and apologises for any confusion that this test may have caused.”
The test warnings were sent to the BOM Weather app for various locations. The test warnings were cancelled immediately after they were issued, they reiterated.
“Testing is important to help the Bureau and partners prepare and plan for real tsunami threats.”
Although tsunamis on the Northern Beaches are not a likely event, they are still very much possible, with certain areas even labelled as ‘hotspots’.
NSW SES Manly is well aware of this threat and will be hosting a tsunami information day on 3 November.
NSW SES Public Information Officer & Media Liaison Wendy Camelloti says it is important for Northern Beaches locals to know how to prepare themselves for this type of emergency, reminding residents this year marks the 20th anniversary of the Boxing Day tsunami, which killed 26 Australians overseas.
“Today obviously was a test, but you know, one day it could happen, although, they’re rare and it is unlikely, if it did happen, we would need to be ready,” she explained.
This will be the third year NSW SES has hosted the information day. It is usually held on 5 November in line with World Tsunami Awareness Day, but this year will instead be on 3 November, Sunday on the grass on the Manly beachfront from 9.30 am to 1.30 pm.
“We will have a stall and a free barbecue for the public and we’ll have all the evacuation maps for the Northern Beaches printed out there so people can have a look at them and ask us any questions that they may have. It’ll basically be an information and education opportunity for anyone who’s interested.”
Wendy says the NSW SES Manly Unit has been working with other coastal units to establish standard operations and a response plan to beaches in ‘hotspots’. They will present the plans to Surf Life Saving and the police so all agencies involved are aware of how to respond to such a situation.
“We’re going to run another exercise. We’ve already done two exercises previously, but we’re also going to run another one in December, a dry run for the members so that they will know what to do and where they would be,” Wendy said.
A well-timed tsunami warning can give residents hours to evacuate, however, the minimum amount of time for an alert to be issued is 90 minutes, which is what NSW SES plans for.
If you are a Northern Beaches resident living in one of these hotspots and would have no clue what to do if a tsunami struck, maybe it’s a good idea to visit the information day, grab a snag and ask some questions – 90 minutes is not a very long time to pack up your life.
Did you enjoy the below cartoon? It’s by local talent Paul ‘Carpo’ Carpenter, who has done a number of fantastic cartoons for Manly Observer over the years and is just about to launch a new children’s book! Check it out here.
