Surapong: Quakes Could Hit Bangkok

[george]

Surapong: Quakes could hit Bangkok

Urges govt to `think the once unthinkable'

CHIANG RAI: -- Information and Communications Technology Minister Surapong Suebwonglee yesterday urged the government to start thinking about what was once thought impossible _ earthquakes in Bangkok _ now the tsunami has shown the folly of conventional wisdom.

Earthquakes could hit the country at any time and it could result in utter devastation in the capital because Thailand has never taken the risk seriously and no precautionary measures were in place, the minister said.

While existing laws require buildings in the western region where the Kanchanaburi fault line is located to incorporate earthquake safety features, Bangkok has no such requirements.

``High rises weren't designed to resist a quake. And there are many in Bangkok. It's time to start thinking the unthinkable. It could happen one day,'' he said.

Mr Surapong also stressed the need to train more seismologists. There are just four in the Meteorological Department.

The minister dismissed the transfer of Suparerk Tansriratanawong from the department as just normal procedure to facilitate an ongoing probe.

The investigation, launched after tsunamis struck the Andaman coast, is being carried out to find out why the department failed to issue an emergency alert about tidal waves after it detected such a strong magnitude earthquake off Sumatra.

He said Mr Suparerk was also assigned to help Smith Tumsaroch, an assistant minister, whose priority now is to set up a tsunami early warning system after Dec 26 disaster.

A ministerial meeting on a tsunami warning system in the Indian Ocean will take place on Jan 28, drawing participants from Asean to those from countries such as Japan and Australia.

He said the warning system would most likely be composed of special buoys for deep ocean assessment and reporting of tsunami waves.

Maintaining the buoys would cost 56 million baht a year and the total cost for a buoy system in the Indian Ocean is estimated at about one billion baht.

--The Post 2005-01-12

[astral]

Earthquakes in Bangkok will be amplified by the jelly (jello for the yanks) like nature of the mud

layer that covers the ground there.

I remember an visible earthquake back in 1989,and the

the recent quake was definitely felt in Bangkok.

[george]

Thai Officials Say Bangkok Should Prepare for Major Quake

BANGKOK: -- The Thai capital should brace itself for a major earthquake, a Cabinet minister said today as he called for a review of the country’s safety measures and disaster warning system following Indonesia’s devastating temblor.

Suraphong Suebwonglee, minister of information and communications technology, said the magnitude-9.0 earthquake off Indonesian’s Sumatra island on December 26 – which shook buildings there – showed Bangkok was not immune.

The earthquake triggered a tsunami that devastated areas across the Indian Ocean and killed more than 153,000 people, including more than 5,000 in southern Thailand.

“Several buildings in Bangkok are not designed to resist earthquakes because we thought earthquakes were not our problem,” Suraphong said. “But today, we cannot think the same way we did in the past. Things that never happened might happen one day.”

High-rise buildings in Bangkok shook after the Indonesian quake. The epicentre was 780 miles from the Thai capital.

A fault line runs through eastern Myanmar, which borders Thailand’s Kanchanaburi province about 68 miles south-west of Bangkok, and a big quake there could have a major impact on the capital of more than 10 million people, the minister said.

“Burma is earthquake prone and has had quakes measuring 4 to 6 in the past, so you can imagine what would happen to Bangkok if a quake up to 9 hit that area. So it is time to think about safety measures and reviewing our disaster warning system,” Suraphong said.

Suraphong, who supervises the Meteorological Department, said the agency must be upgraded and more seismologists trained. The agency has been criticised for not issuing a warning about a possible tsunami after the December 26 quake, and its head has been removed.

An official who was ridiculed for warning of a possible tsunami several years ago is now being praised for his foresight.

Samart Chokanapitak, chief of the irrigation department that oversees more than 300 large dams and dozens of major hydroelectric power projects across Thailand, said the dams were designed to withstand an 8.5 earthquake.

“The irrigation department has checked the dams after the major earthquake in Indonesia, and we have found no damage so far,” he said.

--PA 2005-01-12