New National Warning System (NWS) platform will be tested on Tuesday 13 June 2017 plus an update on changes to our warning and advisory templates
You are receiving this email because you are subscribed to the current National Warning System ‘Media Group’ list.
Note: we are aware that when we transition to the new platform, you may have requested some changes to recipient and/or contact details.

National Warning System test

The Ministry of Civil Defence & Emergency Management (MCDEM) will be conducting the first test of the new National Warning System platform on Tuesday 13 June 2017 (this date is conditional on there being no activations of the National Crisis Management Centre before this date).

The new National Warning System platform will be formally ‘handed over’ to MCDEM on 29 May 2017 and an initial test will be conducted with selected sector contacts. MCDEM staff and key stakeholders are being fully trained to use the new system and will be ready to conduct a full sector-wide test of the new system on 13 June 2017.

The test message will ask you to provide a reply within thirty minutes of receipt of the test message. Subsequent testing will be considered based on this initial test.

The National Warning System should not be confused with the Cell Broadcast Alerting system, which has been announced by the Government to deliver alerts to the public via smartphone. The National Warning System is a back-end platform that delivers national warnings and advisories (eg tsunami warnings) to Civil Defence Emergency Management Groups and media, so they can inform the public and act accordingly.

Implementation of the new platform

Issuing national warnings and advisories in a timely manner so that agencies, CDEM Groups, and local authorities can inform people to take action to reduce loss of life, injury, and damage is one of MCDEM’s core functions and we are committed to making sure we get this right.

Both the new National Warning System platform and the current platform it is replacing will be available in tandem for the next three months as arrangements and processes continue to be bedded in internally and with stakeholders. Be prepared to receive messages from either system during this period.

The table below shows the current contact information that the current National Warning System uses and the new details that will be used from 13 June 2017. Please make sure your organisation follows whatever procedure is required to ensure you can receive National Warning System messages.
Current NWS Platform New NWS Platform
Voice Alerts N/A +64 4 903 5480

SMS 2426 SMS numbers are rolling and issued from each cell provider rather than directly from the Ministry of Civil Defence & Emergency Management. The possible options are any of the following:

2803 2804 2805 4553
4576 4584 4588 4595
4633 4663 4666 4713
4715 4716 4771 4883

Note: The above SMS numbers are not exclusive to the National Warning System and may be used by other SMS subscription service providers.
Email cdevent@datasquirt.co.nz
noreply@service.whispir.co.nz
nws.robot.whispir.nz@service.whispir.co.nz
Note: please whitelist all emails from the domain*@service.whispir.co.nz

Updates to templates

As part of the National Warning System Platform Upgrade, we have taken the opportunity to review all of the templated messages MCDEM issues through the National Warning System and make improvements as required.

We will no longer be issuing a National Advisory Tsunami Potential Threat message for regional and distant source tsunami (those with a tsunami travel time of more than 1 hour). We have received feedback that the Potential Threat Advisory was confusing. In place of this, we will be issuing a National Advisory – Large Pacific Earthquake Being Assessed message. The Large Pacific Earthquake Being Assessed message advises that MCDEM has received notification of a large earthquake in the Pacific, that we are assessing to see whether:
• the earthquake has created a tsunami that could affect New Zealand,
• the minimum travel time of any possible tsunami,
• and that we will provide a further update (either a National Warning or a No Tsunami Threat message) once the initial assessment has been completed.
In the case of local source tsunami a National Advisory Earthquake Being Assessed message may be issued if we receive notification of an earthquake that does not initially meet our thresholds for automatically issuing a tsunami warning, and we believe it could meet the warning thresholds after it has been revised by GeoNet. As we have seen in recent events such as the 2 September 2016 East Cape and 14 November 2016 Kaikoura earthquakes, the magnitude and depth can change significantly from the initial notification. The new Earthquake Being Assessed message includes the Long or Strong, Get Gone advice – anyone who felt the earthquake for either longer than a minute or that it was strong enough that it was hard to stand should immediately self-evacuate. The National Advisory Earthquake Being Assessed message will be followed by either a National Warning or a No Tsunami Threat message once the initial assessment has been completed.

As always, the advice remains that the best warning is the natural warning signs. Locally generated tsunami can arrive in minutes, which means an official notification is unlikely to be issued in time.

What are the benefits of the new platform?

The new National Warning System platform automates many of the current manual steps in the process of assessing hazard information and issuing a National Advisory or Warning message. This will reduce the time it takes to issue National Advisory and Warning messages from receipt of the initial notification of an event.

The new National Warning System platform will help MCDEM ensure essential safety messages get to the public faster.
• The new platform will allow us to publish messages to the NZCivilDefence Facebook page and @NZCivilDefence twitter account at the same time National Warnings and Advisories are issued.
• The request for broadcast of an emergency announcement under the MOU with broadcasters will be issued at the same time MCDEM issues a tsunami warning.
In addition to email and SMS, the new platform will be able to issue automated voice alerts.

We are also working on improvements to the way emergency information is displayed on the www.civildefence.govt.nz website. Expect to see changes from July.

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