Tourists: Why Weren’t We Warned?

[Larry Banks]

A MATTER OF 30 SECONDS: Tourists: Why weren’t we warned?

Dutch pair expresses gratitude for local help but says alert system could have saved hundreds of lives

A Dutch couple who survived last Sunday’s tragedy when tsunami waves hit Phang Nga province thanked Thais for their help, but said that if a warning system had been in place to warn bathers just 15 minutes before the 10-metre wave battered the beach, many lives could have been saved.

“We had 30 seconds [to run and] that saved our lives,” said 52-year-old Arlette Stuip, a schoolteacher.

Stuip said she and her husband, Tom, survived simply because they decided to seek safety inland after witnessing an unusual and drastic change in the water level in the Khao Lak area after feeling the earth shake an hour before.

The two said they lived in California, where tsunamis are not unknown, and so were familiar with the telltale signs of impending tidal surges.

Several tourists and locals were out at the beachfront picking shells and crabs. “They were staring at [the beach],” Tom Stuip said.

Both he and his wife said they were sure that had a system been in place to warn people on the beach of the approaching tsunami with as little as 15 minutes to spare, many of the dead would still be alive today.“Why weren’t we told?”

The Meteorological Department recorded the underwater quake off the coast of Sumatra Island in Indonesia right after it struck at 7:58am and the first tsunami struck Phuket at 9am, leaving an hour during which to issue a warning.

The couple, however, added that they were overwhelmed by the hospitality of local Thais who gave them water, food, clothes, blankets and shelter. Civilian motorists also offered to take them to Bangkok free of charge.

“Such hospitality is unbelievable,” Arlette said, adding that a local man offered them help before he returned to look for his missing sister.

“This could never happen in another country.”

--The Nation 2004-12-28

[jambla]

linda - A MATTER OF 30 SECONDS: Tourists: Why weren’t we warned?

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"Thailand's Meteorological Department said the country lacked an international warning system and proper coordination to get messages of impending disasters sent across the country.

"If we had the international warning system, we could give real-time warning to people," said Seismological Bureau official Sumalee Prachuab.

Governments around the region insisted they did not know the true nature of the threat because there was no international system in place to track tidal waves in the Indian Ocean -- where they are rare -- and they cannot afford to buy sophisticated equipment to build one.

And what warnings there were came too little, too late."

Edited December 29, 2004 by jambla