Learn the drill: Sounding the alarm on Fiji's tsunami sirens

Fiji's Tsunami Early Warning System is clear: sirens will be activated for WARNING only.

Fiji's National Tsunami Response Plan is not well understood among the general public, or even among UN officials, following confusion over the lack of sirens during the tsunami alert last Wednesday. 

While the news of the earthquake and potential for tsunami got out quickly through social media, the National Disaster Management Office (NDMO) has been criticized as being slow to react, and that Fiji's tsunami early warning system (EWS) had failed because sirens were not sounded.

"I have not heard anyone telling me that they heard a siren yesterday, and we didn't hear any and we are based very close to the coastline," said Mr Sune Gudnitz, the head of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs in Fiji. "The sirens really have to work. There has got to be sirens because sirens are accessible to everyone," Mr Gudnitz told the ABC. 

However these sentiments were strongly refuted yesterday by one of the country's key emergency response specialists. Mr Anthony Blake, Commanding Officer of Fiji's Volunteer Emergency Response Team (VERT), says sirens were not sounded because the official level of threat from tsunami did not reach the required level. 

"The tsunami EWS ...is clear that sirens will be activated for WARNING only. In this instance, we had an ALERT, so there was no need for the Siren Activation," said Mr Blake.  

"This was an ALERT, people were advised to take precautionary actions, and I feel that is exactly what they did. 

Mr Blake said social media played a role initially but then gave rise to panic.

"Further, I feel the media, especially radio and TV could have taken more responsibility and run info banners on their screens on the latest tsunami info, and radio could have (updates) every 15mins," M. Blake told Pacdev editor, Michael Hutak.

"For LOCAL tsunamis, there is no wait for formal warnings or sirens, if you felt it, you move. Leave your car and move to higher ground."

Mr Blake said the Tsunami Response Plan has four key phases:

1. INFORMATION
2. ALERT
3. WARNING
4. ALL CLEAR

He said that when an ALERT is in place for all low lying coastal areas of Fiji, people are to take necessary precautions to ensure safety. Agencies like the UN have a protocol in place which sees UN offices near the coast were evacuated. Some government offices followed suit.

Mr Blake said that this event was classified as a "LOCAL Ts" which is one of three tsunami classifications:

• LOCAL Ts (originating earthquake within Fiji Waters)
• REGIONAL Ts (originating earthquake from Tonga, Vanuatu, etc)
• TELE Ts (long distance origins earthquake such as Japan, Chile, Peru etc)

The standard operating procedure for a LOCAL Ts is:

• DROP, COVER & HOLD when you feel the earth shake
• when safe, move to higher ground: this can be moving higher within a building, up a hill, up a coconut tree or even out to sea in a speed boat.

"For LOCAL tsunamis, there is no wait for formal warnings or sirens, if you felt it, you move. Leave your car and move to higher ground."

Mr Blake said this has been in place "since around 2009 however it is not clearly advocated to the emergency services and the emergency management community, let alone the public."

He also said the plan is currently under review, with the NDMO as the lead agency. He said the success of the plan depends on the awareness among key agencies, persons and the public on their roles in the event of Tsunami. 

"Until such time we can sensitize all of Fiji on how this all works, we cannot really blame or say what if or should of, could of, would of..... because the awareness is not complete."

Should Sirens be deployed during the ALERT phase?

Earlier, the ABC asked Mr Gudnitz: the UN had access to social media, computers, phones, what about people who don't have access to these technologies? 

"It's something that must be followed up... it's also been mentioned a lot on social media that nobody heard any sirens. So I'm sure (the Fijian government) will check this out, and make sure that they work because it's in everybody's interest and it's critical."

While the current protocol relies on people to act on feeling the earthquake, it is clear that sirens send a clear and unambiguous message to people to take immediate action. 

It is also clear that the Fijian government and the NDMO must move urgently to complete their review of the National Tsunami Response Plan, and then to engage in a nationwide public communication campaign to ensure the plan is understood, and that the confusion of the past week doesn't end up costing lives in an emergency.