{"id":587379,"date":"2026-09-01T23:52:09","date_gmt":"2026-09-01T23:52:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/587379\/"},"modified":"2026-09-01T23:52:09","modified_gmt":"2026-09-01T23:52:09","slug":"mayor-says-nepal-disaster-should-spur-planning-over-milford-sound-tsunami-risk","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/587379\/","title":{"rendered":"Mayor says Nepal disaster should spur planning over Milford Sound tsunami risk"},"content":{"rendered":"

A new report from Emergency Management Southland highlights the risks of a landslide down the cliffs surrounding the water at Milford Sound<\/a> and then causing a tsunami.<\/p>\n

Large landslides had occurred in the past, and an Alpine Fault earthquake could trigger those in the future<\/a>, the report said, \u201cpotentially creating tsunami that reach visitor and village areas within minutes\u201d.<\/p>\n

Problems identified included a very short response time and limited evacuation options.<\/p>\n

Mayor Rob Scott told Morning Report the tragedy in Nepal was an eye-opener for people in this country and a similar event in an area like Milford Sound could become the country\u2019s worst natural disaster.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat attracts everybody there is the greatest risk.\u201d<\/p>\n

As soon as the Nepal flash floods occurred, Scott said he was among those realising how much of a wake-up call it was and it could easily be repeated here.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s trying to weigh up what we can actually do … there is a likelihood it\u2019s going to happen and I guess we\u2019ve got to look as a country as to what we can do to be the most prepared we can be.\u201d<\/p>\n

He didn\u2019t wish to catastrophise the risk, however, Milford Sound attracted a million visitors a year so at any given point in a day there could be 3500 people visiting.<\/p>\n

One possibility would be limiting the number of visitors to reduce the scale of any possible disaster.<\/p>\n

There wouldn\u2019t be much warning and even if an earthquake provided some clues it would still leave people with only two or three minutes to get to higher ground, Scott said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think Usain Bolt would probably even struggle to get to higher ground in that short timeframe so the risk is real and I think we need to look at what practical things we can do to mitigate it.\u201d<\/p>\n

While practical advice could be given to residents, it was much harder trying to prepare visitors for such an emergency, Scott said.<\/p>\n

Milford Sound is part of the Department of Conservation\u2019s estate.<\/p>\n

However, emergency management falls to councils to fund, but Milford Sound was a nationally significant attraction, he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis becomes a national responsibility rather than a local one to fund.\u201d<\/p>\n

He said someone at a high level needed to take ownership and responsibility for the risks.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis whole \u2018it\u2019s not my responsibility, not my job\u2019 kind of thing isn\u2019t going to land here after the event.\u201d<\/p>\n

Scott said some of the funding could come from the International Visitor Levy and paying for some escape routes might need to be one priority.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe need to look at whatever measures we can to minimise the harm from something that\u2019s just happened in Nepal.\u201d<\/p>\n

– RNZ<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A new report from Emergency Management Southland highlights the risks of a landslide down the cliffs surrounding the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":587380,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[48803,273,10934,92898,13298,111,139,69,1523,660,7192,312,147,3271,26660,26807,20702],"class_list":["post-587379","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-environment","tag-disaster","tag-environment","tag-mayor","tag-milford","tag-nepal","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-over","tag-planning","tag-risk","tag-says","tag-science","tag-should","tag-sound","tag-spur","tag-tsunami"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/587379","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=587379"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/587379\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/587380"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=587379"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=587379"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=587379"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}