Phuket tsunami-evacuation drill reveals warning tower needs repairs

By The Phuket News

 

Students take part in the tsunami-evacuation drill in Kamala yesterday (Sept 9). Photo: PR Phuket

 

PHUKET: The tsunami-evacuation drill conducted in Kamala yesterday morning (Sept 9) revealed that the speakers on one of the warning towers in the beach resort town needs repairs after failing to adequately sound the alarm during the simulation exercise.

 

At a review meeting held after the the drill, which started at 10am with the sirens sounding the alarm at four locations in Kamala, Department of Disaster Prevention and Mitigation (DDPM) Phuket office Chief Sophon Thongsai explained that the main purpose of the drill was to check the readiness of the warning sirens as well as the readiness of local people in responding to alarm. 

 

The simulation itself involved officers being notified of an 8.5-Magnitude underwater earthquake striking some 10 kilometers deep northeast of Great Nicobar Island, an island in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands archipelago located some 200km west of Phuket.

 

Full story: https://www.thephuketnews.com/phuket-tsunami-evacuation-drill-reveals-warning-tower-needs-repairs-77262.php

 

-- © Copyright Phuket News 2020-09-10

 

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Am surprised any worked

real translation of this story is that a bell has lost its clapper !

This is exactly what a drill is for - to train people and also find flaws. 

 

The flaw here is clearly lack of preventative maintenance (reactive rather than proactive).

 

 

Its a positive sign that someone in a position of decision making power has pre-empted a failure. Common sense would suggest that all other parts of the island and those potentially impacted by Tsunami employ similar drills to target potential issues. 

1 hour ago, RichardColeman said:

real translation of this story is that a bell has lost its clapper !

I'd wager that the tsunami warning buoys are also clapped ... they simply don't get the maintenance bit.

The girls look happy at getting out of class for a while.