IAEM Oceania

Source: Stuff.co.nz

Traffic cameras have been used to monitor the impact of the tsunami on Christchurch coastlines. Christchurch City Council civil defence staff used a traffic camera on Humphreys Drive to check water levels in the Estuary when the first wave – triggered by an earthquake near Samoa – reached Christchurch shores about 11.30am. A mobile traffic camera has also been positioned in Moncks Bay to record water levels in the Estuary throughout the day. Council civil defence manager Murray Sinclair said the water levels did not rise dramatically when the first wave hit.

The MCDEM Samoa Tsunami Releases are available from this page.

Source: NZ Herald

It is not good enough for John Carter to say there will be a review of New Zealand Civil Defence's response to the tsunami alert - there needs to be an independent review of what happened by someone we can trust. And it should be given priority. You never know when the system will next need to respond and after yesterday's schemozzle, my confidence in the system has weakened, not grown. Before that confidence in the system can be restored, we need to have confidence in a decent review and what happened. We need to be sure it is not some PR puff piece put together by the officials involved whom we know would say "we can always do better."

Source: NZ Government

$1million to Samoa, Tonga for emergency relief

New Zealand is providing an initial $1million donation for immediate disaster relief efforts in Samoa and Tonga, Foreign Minister Murray McCully announced today.

"This initial contribution will help the governments of Samoa and Tonga to provide essential supplies and personnel to help those in need following the earthquake and tsunami," Mr McCully said.

It is good to see Telecom also taking measures to ensure that the offer won't overload telecommunication systems - which may be under load in the affected countries due to damage and increased traffic.

TELECOM SUPPORT FOLLOWING DISASTERS IN ASIA AND THE PACIFIC

1 October 2009

Telecom customers will not be charged for home phone calls to Samoa from midnight Tuesday until midnight Friday 2 October. Calls to Tonga will also not be charged from midnight Wednesday to midnight Friday.

Source: NZ Government

Minister calls for Civil Defence review

Civil Defence Minister John Carter has asked for a review into how the Civil Defence and Emergency Management ministry deals with tsunami alerts.

"Generally, the response to yesterday's tsunami warning was pretty good, but there are concerning reports about the ways in which some information was communicated to the public. Frankly, that is not good enough," says Mr Carter.

Source: Radio NZ Online

Samoa's disaster management office says more than 32,000 people have been affected in some way by the catastrophic earthquake and tsunami that struck in the South Pacific on Wednesday.

The office puts the confirmed death at 83, though it expects that will rise. In neighbouring American Samoa 24 people have perished and seven people died in Tonga in the aftermath of the 8.0 magnitude quake.

Vodafone has just announced via Twitter that they are making free off-peak calls available to Samoa over the next two days. Hattip to @ook and @dpfdpf

Calls to Samoa free from 6pm tonight for next two days on fixed and mobile with Vodafone. Our thoughts are with you, Samoa.

I believe 2degrees may have a similar deal in the offering.

Reports from various international aid agencies are available from this page on ReliefWeb.

Tide gauge chart

Detided gauge chart