Find out here. Search for your property in the address search bar, or pan around the map to see Canterbury’s tsunami evacuation zones.

 For more information on when and how to evacuate, see the tsunami pages on the Environment Canterbury website or contact your local emergency management officer at your city or district council.

The red zone includes beaches, estuaries, harbours and river mouths. These are the areas most likely to be affected by a tsunami and that would experience the highest water depths and strongest currents.  This area can be affected by small tsunamis that are unlikely to flood land but that cause strong surges or currents in the water.

You should leave this zone immediately if you:

• feel a long or strong earthquake, OR
• are told to evacuate by Civil Defence, OR
• you hear tsunami sirens (where they are installed).

Stay out of this zone until you are told it is safe to go back.

You can expect to evacuate the red zone several times in your lifetime.

The orange zone is less likely to be affected by a tsunami and includes low-lying coastal areas that are likely to be flooded in a large tsunami that inundates land.

You should leave this zone immediately if you:

• feel a long or strong earthquake, OR
• are told to evacuate by Civil Defence, OR
• you hear tsunami sirens (where they are installed).

Stay out of this zone until you are told it is safe to go back.

You can expect to evacuate the orange zone maybe a few times in your lifetime.

Christchurch and Banks Peninsula also have a yellow zone, which are areas least likely to be affected by a tsunami.  They could potentially be flooded in a very large tsunami coming from across the Pacific Ocean.

You do not need to leave this zone if you feel a long or strong earthquake.  There are no known local tsunami sources that would flood this area.

If you hear tsunami sirens, turn on the radio or visit your local council's Civil Defence page.

If you hear or see an announcement by Civil Defence to evacuate the yellow zone, you must leave immediately and stay out of this zone until you’re told it’s safe to go back. 

While it is possible you will have to evacuate this zone sometime in your lifetime, it is unlikely.

Note: In most other parts of New Zealand, yellow zones need to be evacuated in a long or strong earthquake. You should check local tsunami evacuation zones when spending time on the coast.

Not in a zone?

If you are not in a tsunami evacuation zone you:

• don’t need to evacuate in a long or strong earthquake,
• don’t need to evacuate during a warning from Civil Defence,
• may wish to open your home to family or friends who need to evacuate.