Tauranga City Councillor Bill Grainger wants people's increasing awareness of potential tsunami danger following the Japan earthquake to focus closer to home.

An advocate for early warning tsunami sirens, Bill says most Bay of Plenty residents are unaware there is a considerable tsunami danger much closer to the region than Japan.

Bill on The Strand, at one metre above sea level.

The Rumbles volcanoes lie along the Kermadec Ridge about 300km northwest of Tauranga. They are active, and one of them, Rumble III, blew 100m off its top in an undersea eruption in 2007.

A tsunami generated by an eruption or earthquake near the Rumbles would take less than an hour to make landfall along the Bay of Plenty.

Sirens are the best way of alerting the greatest number of people in the shortest time, says Bill.

Sirens at Mount Maunganui, Papamoa and Maketu, plus another in central Tauranga, will contact people both at home and while driving, says Bill, who notes if the tsunami siren goes off in the middle of the night, 'we use what we have got”.

'In the Mount central, the logical place to go is to run up the Mount or Mount Drury. 'People on Tauranga's Otumoetai harbour front can escape up the hill.

'Papamoa is little different. I'm sure there's something that can be done as part of a larger plan.

'It is just a concern for me,” says Bill.

'We have pussy-footed around too long – something has to be done about it and it has to be done now. I just want to shake things up a little bit.”

On January 26, before the second Christchurch earthquake and the Japan earthquake and tsunami; acting on advice that sirens were ineffective as warning systems, the Tauranga City Council decided to instead support the Readynet system – a system that is activated by mains power pulses. It is a communication coordination system that provides clarity of information for Civil Defence responders and also offers a device for people's homes to alert residents. The device costs $120, with an expectation most householders would have to purchase their own.

Tsunami risk is the focus of many local government organisations around the country.

Environment Waikato regional hazards manager Adam Munro says New Zealand ranks fourth in the world for tsunami risk and second in the world for tornado frequency.
Waikato University is hosting a second regional hazards forum at the university on Thursday, March 31 to which the media and the general public are invited.

The forum is at the PWC lecture theatre 7-9m. People are asked to bring a gold coin donation to go towards the Christchurch earthquake appeal.
'The forum will provide the media and the community with a good overview how hazard risks that we face in the Waikato are managed,” says Adam.
'The impacts of the Canterbury earthquakes, flooding in Queensland and the devastation caused by the Japanese tsunami are clear examples of why we need to take these risks very seriously.”
River flooding is a particular risk in the Waikato and there is also a focus currently on looking at what eastern Coromandel communities need to be better prepared for the impacts of a large tsunami generated by local and far away earthquakes.
'As well as these risks, there are active volcanoes in our region and potential for earthquakes along local fault lines, and tornadoes,” says Adam.