Thu, Mar 31, 2005 page9

• Indian Ocean countries react quickly to quake

  While Asia still lacks a tsunami warning system, local systems seem to be working fairly well, as seen with the comparatively swift reaction to the massive earthquake in Indonesia late on Monday night

  • DPA
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  Within hours of a massive 8.7 magnitude earthquake off the coast of Indonesia late on Monday night, tens of thousands of coastal denizens along the Indian Ocean were fleeing their homes and hotels in fear of another killer tsunami.

  Thankfully, none came, but had Monday's quake triggered a tidal wave similar to the Dec. 26 disaster, this time round Asia would definitely have been better prepared.

  The Dec. 26 tsunamis killed approximately 275,000 people in Indonesia, Sri Lanka, India and Thailand.

  

  ILLUSTRATION: MOUNTAIN PEOPLE

  Many of the victims were taken by complete surprise, given the rarity of tsunamis in the Indian Ocean and the lack of any early warning system similar to the one in the much more tsunami-prone Pacific Ocean.

  Three months after the disaster, Asia still lacks a proper tsunami early warning system but fresh memories, fear and localized systems seem to be working adequately.

  "The early warning system is not set up yet, so right now the system is not working," said Budi Waluyo, National Meteorology and Geophysics Office in Jakarta.

  "Right now the only early warning system we have is what happened last night in Medan and other cities where the local police officers just gave some public announcements," Waluyo said.

  For many in tsunami-traumatized Aceh, the quake itself was the early warning system. By the time the news was even broadcast on radios and televisions here, residents in areas that would have been affected by a tsunami were already well on the move.

  The quake was felt as far away as southern Thailand, where tourists were evacuated from hotels in Hat Yai and Phuket, for fear of after-shocks and tsunamis.

  Thailand's Meteorological Department issued tsunami warnings on television and radio to residents and tourists in the six provinces rimming the Andaman Sea about 30 minutes after the Indonesian quake.

  Not everyone was satisfied with the government's warnings. For instance, hoteliers in Phuket's Patong beach resort, hard hit by the Dec. 26 disaster, complained that police did not get around to urging an evacuation until two hours after the Indonesian quake.

  "I was not 100 percent satisfied with our performance," admitted Smith Dharmasaroja, the official attached to the prime minister's office who is in charge of setting up Thailand's first National Disaster Center.

  "We had some difficulties sending messages to television and radio stations," Smith said. "When our National Disaster Center is complete next month the system will work better."

  Thailand was criticized for failing to issue tsunami warnings after the Dec. 26 quake, and may even face lawsuits from relatives of the victims for failing to prevent unnecessary deaths.

  In India, the first warning came from meteorologists in the government's ministry of science and technology, who alerted the home ministry within an hour of the earthquake hitting Indonesia.

  Prime Minister Manmohan Singh convened an emergency meeting and the home ministry set up an emergency control room. The Indian navy, army and air force were put on high alert.

  Two hours after the earthquake, an official federal government tsunami alert was issued to eastern coastal states and the Andaman and Nicobar Islands in the Indian Ocean. Last December, the killer tidal waves crashed into eastern coastal India in about three hours after the earthquake.

  Last December it took the government's Crisis Management Group six hours after the earthquake to hold its first meeting and decide on a strategy. Though the government has withdrawn the warning, some residents were reluctant to return for fear that the tsunami threat was not yet over.

  The science ministry got quick inputs from tidal gauges installed in the Andamans, the archipelago that almost stretches to the tip of Sumatra. By midnight officials confirmed that a tsunami was unlikely, but coastal areas kept a vigil through the night.

  In Sri Lanka, the government made public appeals at midnight on Monday for civilians to withdraw 2km from the coastal line. Police used loud speakers to warn people on land, while fishermen at sea were alerted by radio.

  Myanmar, which lost less than 100 people to the Dec. 26 tsunami, first issued warnings to its southernmost coastal areas about 5 hours after the Indonesian quake.

  The warnings, primarily to Rakhine State, were done chiefly by telephone since there are no television and radio broadcasts by the state-controlled media earlier than 7am.
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