Phone alerts received in Whakatane.

No phone alerts here in the western bay of plenty, so all good. Might head down and check out the waves. 

RunningMan:

 

Has the cellphone emergency alert system been used in any locations, or just sirens?

 

One News live said tsunami warnings all around NZ. False. Sirens are in use and from what I gather phone warnings only in affected areas

The tsunami gauges at Raoul Island went offline at the time of the 8.1 quake.  

The earlier 7.4 quake generated small waves, as did the 7.1 off East Cape - visible on the gauges - looks like about 1m waves at East Cape, and visible of the Great Barrier gauge.

Reports from friends in various affected areas that no sirens sounding - they do have them tho. Seems lot of areas are relying on the alert system which is stupid.

xpd:

Reports from friends in various affected areas that no sirens sounding - they do have them tho. Seems lot of areas are relying on the alert system which is stupid.

 

Fred99:

The tsunami gauges at Raoul Island went offline at the time of the 8.1 quake.  

The earlier 7.4 quake generated small waves, as did the 7.1 off East Cape - visible on the gauges - looks like about 1m waves at East Cape, and visible of the Great Barrier gauge.

 

surfisup1000:

Fred99:

 

The tsunami gauges at Raoul Island went offline at the time of the 8.1 quake.  

 

 

 

The earlier 7.4 quake generated small waves, as did the 7.1 off East Cape - visible on the gauges - looks like about 1m waves at East Cape, and visible of the Great Barrier gauge.

 

 

 

 

 

Guess it depends on the movement direction of the quake... side to side or an uplift... you’d have thought some types of satellites could detect the wave size (if they are over the area of course)

I would have thought that. Given that the 8.1 was shallow at 10km, and on a plate boundary so its highly likely to be subduction, so a real threat. Its due now in the Far North, and unpredictable water conditions now advised for top half of South Island, and evacuation has been extended up north 

The phone alert thingy has gone off three times so far this morning in Whangarei. Everyone in the city (about 1 m above sea level, up a long harbour) seems to be evacuating.

ShinyChrome:

 

Well the morning feed for our newborn was conveniently timed, since she woke up at 2:20-ish... either that or she has ESPN or something.

 

It was just a nice gentle roll in the Manawatu though, pity I wasn't on my way back to sleep...

 

Congrats on your new addition and the new adventure you are all taking part in!

MikeB4:

If they set them off too soon there will be the moans about they caused there cats to have kittens, damaged their hearing and messed up the paint on their house.

There's no "overreaction" IMO.  

From the "beach ball" showing focal mechanism for the M8.1 Kermadec quake, it looks like a thrust event. the kind of quake that could have generated a significant tsunami.

Not so much the quake off East Cape, more strike slip than thrust.

This is the Kermadec quake beach ball from USGS:

Guide from Wikipedia:

Flock-up overrides lock-down.

MikeB4: @Fred99 I agree and believe that emergency management should err on the side of safety and ignore the 4,000,000 self appointed experts in everything. It’s a dammed if they do and dammed if they do so just do.

I predict a list of failures with this event will hit the news/FB tomorrow