OVER 70 emergency service personnel will be descending on the Port Macquarie Emergency Operations Centre on Saturday but there is no reason for the public to be concerned or alarmed.
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The NSW State Emergency Service (SES) will be hosting a multi-agency emergency management exercise "Wave Rider". The aim of the exercise is to test the ability of emergency services to work cooperatively and effectively in responding to a large scale tsunami impacting the state's Mid North Coast.
The "table top" exercise will be based around the very possible scenario of a large undersea earthquake in the South Pacific generating a tsunami that impacts the NSW east coast.
The scenario presented will involve the use of a simulated Bureau of Meteorology (BoM) land inundation tsunami watches and warnings testing emergency services on their knowledge and capability to work together in accordance with the NSW SES Mid North Coast Tsunami Response Plan in responding to an event of this magnitude.
The exercise will involve representatives from the NSW Police Manning Great Lakes, NSW Police Mid North Coast, NSW Police, Marine Area Command, NSW Ambulance, Fire and Rescue NSW, NSW Rural Fire Service, NSW SES, Marine Rescue, Surf Life Saving Australia, NSW Maritime and the Bureau of Meteorology (BoM).
Acting NSW SES Mid North Coast Region Controller, Mr Tony Day said the exercise will provide a great opportunity to reinforce and build on the excellent working relationships between emergency services on the Mid North Coast. The exercise will also help to improve the individual skill sets and knowledge of participating emergency services in responding to large scale emergency events.
During the operation a team of assessors will oversee the performance of participants in managing the simulated incident.
The assessors will be examining a number of key areas including initial impact and risk assessment, information management, the effectiveness of incident management team structures, resource coordination, communication and ability of different agencies to work together effectively.
There will also be presentations from the BoM Joint Tsunami Warning Group and the NSW SES Tsunami Capability Development Working Group on the likelihood and consequence of Tsunami in New South Wales.
The day will conclude with a "hot debrief" presentation, in which participants will be able to share the lessons learned during the exercise.
These lessons learned will then inform enhancements to the NSW SES Mid North Coast Region Tsunami Response Plan.
The exercise is occurring during Tsunami Safe month where the NSW SES is asking residents and visitors to the NSW coast to be aware that tsunamis can happen and know what different tsunami warnings mean.
Mr Day said, "It is important that people understand the possible consequences of a land threat tsunami warning. If such a warning is issued it is likely that series of tsunami waves will cause major inundation of low lying coastal areas and represent a significant risk to people's safety."
Should such a land threat tsunami warning be issued, the NSW SES recommends that people move to higher ground, 10 metres above sea level and to locations least one kilometre away from the foreshore. For those people living along rivers and other estuaries it is recommended that people move ten kilometres inland and to higher ground.
The last significant tsunami event to affect the NSW east coast was in 1960 where a massive earthquake off the coast of Chile caused waves of just under a metre up and down the NSW coastline.
In more recent times there has been the India Ocean tsunami in 2004 that claimed the lives of over 230,000 people and the Japanese tsunami of 2011 that resulted in the deaths of 15,893 people.