Earthquakes - Never Happens, happens

This morning's earthquakes were a literal wake up call, with many residents realising how unprepared we are for an evacuation in an emergency of this magnitude.

Civil Defence would like to thank the thousands of people who evacuated this morning and would like to remind everyone to stay out of the water (sea, rivers and estuaries, including boating activities) and stay of beaches and shore areas. The tsunami threat has been reduced for the Thames Valley area, but there is still a threat.

"There is no need for further evacuation and we advise people to stay up to date via radio and television," says Garry Towler, Thames Valley Civil Defence Controller.

To find out more about how you can be prepared head to our website www.tcdc.govt.nz/be-prepared

Further Information

At approximately 2am this morning, a 7.5 magnitude earthquake was recorded at Culverden. There are have been numerous subsequent recorded earthquakes across the North and South Islands of New Zealand.

The earthquakes continue, with the highest concentration of reports in the Seddon and Kaikoura areas. A Tsunami Warning was initially issued for the whole East Coast of NZ. This was later amended to a Tsunami Warning for eastern seaboard areas south of East Cape.

Tsunami sirens across Coromandel Peninsula were activated at 2am and deactivated 2:32am.

GeoNet the official source of geological hazard information for New Zealand.

To see where the latest quakes in our region were felt haed to the Geonet website.

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