NEMA's new emergency map failed during Wairoa floods

Authorities have confirmed a second piece of emergency technology has not worked properly in recent days.

The main Civil Defence website crashed on Thursday night after a large earthquake near Te Anau, sparking a probe.

Now it has come to light that a new national emergency mobile alert map did not display the evacuation alert for the flooding in Wairoa last week.

The National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) said locals did get the cellphone alert, but the map was still in development.

"Our team is aware of the issue and working to resolve it," NEMA told RNZ on Thursday.

Daniel Ayers, an IT security commentator, spotted the map failure.

"The map, if people go and look at that, is wrong," Ayers said on Friday. "My point is that don't push the thing to the public until it's actually working correctly."

Mobile alerts, yes; map, no

NEMA said residents got the life-saving information on their phones.

"On 9 July, the EMA (emergency mobile alert) was sent to and successfully transmitted by cellphone towers in the affected areas, meaning that residents had the life-safety information they needed. However, that EMA was not displayed on the EMA map."

Locals got a text alert on their phones.

When the map was launched in mid-June the NEMA website said, "A new map will allow anyone in New Zealand to see any live emergency mobile alerts."

"The map will show all current active alerts issued by authorised agencies .. This map means anyone can look up a live alert on the map, see where it was sent, and what it said."

Hawke's Bay Emergency Management said it raised the map problem with NEMA immediately.

The national agency has just begun a five-year, multimillion-dollar overhaul of disaster response systems found woefully inadequate in Cyclone Gabrielle and other big storms over the last two decades.

The map "is still being tested and improved. There is a disclaimer on the map web page that makes this clear," NEMA said.

The map's main purpose was to alert people who did not get the alerts on their phone, such as the media or people outside the targeted area who might have friends or family in the area.

People who noticed issues with the tech could get in touch at [email protected], it added.

'One of several channels'

Hawke's Bay Civil Defence Emergency Management controller group controller Shane Briggs said the cellphone alert advised affected and nearby residents to evacuate.

"It was one of several communications channels used at the time, alongside emergency services door-knocking, and Wairoa District Council's own communication with its communities," Briggs said on Thursday in a statement.

"We raised the map display issue with NEMA that same evening."

Both the alert platform and the map are national systems run by NEMA.

Ayers said the emergency map also did not show Thursday night's quake for about 15 minutes, and said he had picked up on problems months back, too.

The website crashing added to the pattern of problems.

"If the people who develop the website haven't confirmed that it works correctly, it shouldn't have been made available to the public," Ayers said.

"It's not just one issue, it's a whole series of them and these seem to be being explained away by NEMA as, I guess, unimportant."

NEMA was meant to be the authoritative source on emergencies so the information they published needed to be right, he said.

"I don't understand why they can't verify that the system works correctly before they put it live to the public. I think the major problem here is that NEMA need to hold themselves to a higher standard."