The Eastern Bay's Emergency coordinator says New Zealand needs similar technology to the United States, when it comes to natural hazards.

Jan Pryor has dismissed the possibility of a text message-based alert system, to warn people of hazard alerts.

She says New Zealand's technology doesn't have the capabilty to effectively manage this.

Ms Pryor says the best measure would be to use a similar service to America.

She says they have a system which uses celltowers to ring landlines in affected areas, with an automated voice message stating what to do.