Exercise Tangaroa. New Zealands Tsunami test
On 20th October 2010, New Zealand’s ability to respond to a tsunami event will be tested in ‘Exercise Tangaroa’.
Exercise Tangaroa is a national, multi-agency exercise that will focus on the national response to a distant source tsunami event. The exercise is led by the Ministry of Civil Defence & Emergency Management and is supported by the 16 CDEM Groups, central government departments, emergency services, lifeline utilities, and other agencies as appropriate.
The name for the exercise comes from Maori mythology where ‘Tangaroa’ is the God of the sea, rivers, lakes and all that live within them.
The aim of Exercise Tangaroa is “to test New Zealand’s all of nation arrangements for responding to a national tsunami warning”.
Scenario
According to the exercise organisers the scenario for Exercise Tangaroa will be a distant source tsunami originating from South America. The exercise will be played in real time and there will be no compression of timelines or artificial times/dates for exercise purposes. The timeframe for the exercise scenario will be as realistic as possible, according to the latest tsunami research.
Exercise Tangaroa focuses on the lead-up to a tsunami arrival, stopping shortly before the first waves reach the Chatham Islands.
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