They are lucky it wasn't a repeat performance of Boxing Day 2004

Found the following in this mornings Age:

Bureau bungles Victoria tsunami warning

The weather bureau has defended its decision to withhold a tsunami warning for Victoria after yesterday's earthquake off New Zealand.

The Bureau of Meteorology was alerted to a tsunami threat after an undersea earthquake with a magnitude of 7.6 on the Richter scale off the south-west coast of New Zealand at 3.23pm (AEST) yesterday.

*snip*

Bureau senior forecaster Terry Ryan said the bureau was warned a tsunami could hit Australian shores within two to three hours.

But a warning was not issued until more than two hours later when "word got around".

Link: The Age: Bureau bungles Victoria tsunami warning

I tell ya these idiots are just so lucky this situation didn't turn into a disaster like we witnessed during the 2004 Boxing Day Tsunami.

I live in the Gippsland Lakes area of Victoria. In the past year this area of Victoria has been witness to bushfires and severe floods.

I never heard about any of this until this morning when I read the newspaper. Some alert they sent out only after the word got around, huh? We had the TV on yesterday, and never went out at all. So what kind of warning system are they supplying us?

During the floods back in July of this year, we were given constant up dates, not by any government body, but the local ABC radio.

During the bushfires of 2006-2007 season, we had government officials going around putting panic into everyone by telling people the fires would reach them in a matter of days. Those fires never came that close to any of the towns they caused this kind of panic.

Australia really needs an over hall of how pending disasters are handled here. What we currently have has been nothing more than a joke, which happens to risk the lives of the citizens of this country.