Thailand Conducts Tsunami Warning, Evacuation Drill

[george]

Thailand conducts tsunami warning, evacuation drill

BANGKOK: -- Thailand's six Andaman Sea coastal provinces conducted tsunami warning and evacuation drills on Monday.

On the tourist resort island of Phuket, evacuation drills were conducted in 19 locations and large numbers of local residents, students and visitors joined the event, presided over by Deputy Prime Minister Suwit Khunkitti.

In Phangnga, rescue workers and villagers in Takua Pha district joined the mock drill.

However, Moken sea gypsies from Ban Tabtawan rejected participation in the exercise, saying they are disgruntled that they were evicted from their living place and no authorities have since helped them.

The 2004 tsunami struck Thailand's six coastal provinces, killing more than 5,000 foreign tourists and local people.

--TNA 2008-07-07

[george]

Thai tsunami warning drill ends gets 'thumbs up'

PHUKET: -- Deputy Prime Minister Suwit Khunkitti said tsunami warning drills in Thailand's six Andaman Sea coastal provinces were satisfactory as the warning system functioned effectively and participation of local residents and tourists was gratifying.

Mr. Suwit spoke in his capacity as chairman of the Committee on the National Disaster Warning Administration that the warning and evacuation drill on Monday was a useful exercise and the performance was complete.

The drill was designed to help local people escape in the event of a disaster and to build confidence among tourists and local residents, he said.

Mr. Suwit added that 79 warning towers in six Andaman coastal areas are now functional and that the national disaster warning centre will install an additional 144 warning towers nationwide to cover disaster prone areas in the country. The task is expected to be complete in one year.

Krabi governor Siwa Sirisawaluk said that the warning system test and evacuation drill were conducted in the province and on Phi Phi Island.

In the test areas the population was evacuated to safe areas in sufficient time.

In Trang, about 200 villagers and students joined the drill in Sikao district. However, a warning tower in the Coastal Aquaculture Development Centre failed to alert villagers, so officials had to use sirens from three police cars.

In Phuket, tourists and local residents on Patong beach moved along evacuation routes to to safe places after they heard sirens from warning towers.

-- TNA 2008-07-07

[Scott]

inappropriate comments removed

/admin

Edited July 8, 2008 by huski

[NBT TV Phuket]

MiniVDO on http://thainews.prd.go.th/newsenglish/prev...php?news_id=378

MiniVDO: Special - Tsunami Warning & Evacuation Drill at Saphan Hin & Patong on 7 July

<p> After informing people in advance about the full scale Tsunami Warning and Evacuation drill in 79 locations in 6 Andaman coastal provinces where the warning towers are installed, the Thai government on Monday July 7th conducted the exercise. They covered the provinces of Phuket, Phang-Nga, Krabi, Ranong, Trang and Satun.

In Phuket, participants involved included related officials, medical staff, communications, local governments, residents, and tourists, adults and children. It aimed at testing out the personnel, and equipment plus local residents’ and tourists’ awareness for handling future disasters in prevention of any loss of lives.

The activity simulated an earthquake of 8.5 on the Richter scale and the National Disaster Warning Centre (NDWC) issued warnings via towers in all 79 locations. The towers are linked with the NDWC in NonthaBuri province, near Bangkok.

Once the warning tower signaled the alarms for a pretend Tsunami at around 9.45am, the exercise began. At Saphan Hin in Phuket city, after the siren, people and students who were in fact training for sports events, started to evacuate inland along the designated routes heading to higher and safer ground.

<p> At the tourist beach of Patong in Phuket, some residents and tourists joined in the drill relocating themselves to safe ground after hearing the warning siren. They ran along the designated route of Soi Bang La onto Soi Sansabai lane which is designated as higher ground and an evacuation area.

The full-scale drill was run with search and rescue volunteers and medical teams to handle people who were supposedly injured from the tsunami or evacuation. They listened to the incident commander so that management would run as planned. The NDWC announced the end of the situation at around 10.20am.

After the drill the Deputy Prime Minister Suwit Khunkitti who witnessed the mock situation at Saphan Hin, in his capacity as chairman of the national committee on disaster warning systems, thanked local authorities, governments and all the public, and volunteers who contributed to the comprehensive exercise and voiced his confidence in the preparedness of locals in the case of any future natural disaster:

Similar natural disaster drills are expected to take place in northern Thailand, in preparation for potential earthquakes in that region.

Meanwhile Mr Suwit indicated that in future the warning towers will play the national anthem at 08.00 and 18.00 hours everyday to ensure that the systems are operating well.

<p> After the drill we spoke to 3 sets of tourists in Patong, firstly to Australians who joined in the run up Soi Bangla to Soi Sansabai in the middle of town, and who just by chance were the same tourists we spoke to last week on the beach before the drill: According to them, the tower messages were not clear even though they were just 100 metres away:

Then we spoke to another Australian tourist who was staying at Sunset Beach Resort, in Kalim, in the north part of Patong, where another warning siren is installed right on top of the hotel. It is maintained by the Patong Municipality and according to the tourist it went off loud and clear at the same time as other towers on Monday morning:

Finally we spoke to a Dutch family of guests at Seaview hotel on the Beach road at the south end of Patong, where the Municipality also installed a warning siren on top of the hotel. However according to the tourist, the sound was not so clear as expected:

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MiniVDO on http://thainews.prd.go.th/newsenglish/prev...php?news_id=379

MiniVDO: Phang-Nga and Krabi governors were pleased with the Tsunami evacuation drills.

<p> Starting from Phang-Nga where the exercise was conducted in 18 locations where the towers are in place. The comprehensive test was conducted at the fishing village of Ban Namkem and involved over 1,000 villagers, adults and school children. The drill simulated Tsunami warnings via warning towers and people started to evacuate to a designated evacuation shelter at Ban Namkem school.

Witnessing the exercise and joining in himself, Phang-Nga Governor Wichai Praisa-Ngob said he was pleased with the exercise and that it was very well participated in by locals and tourists. He said the participants correctly followed the procedures so he is assured that in the case of any future disaster or threat, it would help minimize the loss of lives and properties.

In Krabi, the tests were conducted in 12 locations where the towers are linked with the National Disaster Warning Centre are installed. They included Phi Phi island, Ao Nang bay, Nopparat Tara , Sri Borya island and Lanta island. The local authority also ran evacuation drills in 20 other locations where towers under the provincial authority’s responsibility are built. The governor Siwa Sirisaowaluck was pleased with the exercise saying that people could evacuation to safe ground within the designated time.

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http://thainews.prd.go.th/newsenglish/prev...php?news_id=381

MiniVDO: Ranong’s warning towers need to be improved as the sound was too faint during the Tsunami evacuation drills.

The Tsunami evacuation drill took place in 5 locations of 2 districts in Ranong. They were Suksamran and Kapur. After the exercise Ranong Governor Kanjanapa Keeman said the sounds from the towers were too faint and that the warnings in speech were too long. She expressed her concerns that if the Tsunami warning were to be issued at night time, the general public would not hear. She suggested that the sound of the towers be adjusted. Meanwhile the provincial chief of Disaster Prevention and Mitigation Jessada Wattananurak said the National Disaster Warning Centre or NDWC has approved a 9.2 million baht to install 4 additional towers for Ranong. They are to be installed in Pak Klong, Bangwan village, Kampruan and a Bang KluayNok pier. The provincial authority will also request a budget for another 6 locations.

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Andaman News NBT (VHF dial) + maybe FM90.5 Radio Thailand at 8.30am & perhaps relays/repeats on local Cable TV channel 1, broadcast to Phang Nga, Krabi & Phuket provinces, & possibly FM108 Mazz Radio 7.30pm in Phuket, Wednesday 9 July 2008 & http://thainews.prd.go.th/newsenglish/ Contact [email protected]