Tsunami Alert Prompts Confusion In Phuket

[webfact]

Tsunami alert prompts confusion in Phuket

THE EPICENTER: A map showing the location of the earthquake that triggered a false alarm on Phuket this morning.

ALL CLEAR: Phuket Governor Wichai Phraisa-ngop on Patong Beach this morning.

PHUKET: -- Confusion reigned in coastal areas of Phuket this morning after a tsunami ‘advisory alert’ was mistaken by many as a full-scale evacuation order.

The alert followed a 7.5-richter earthquake at about 5:15am local time along the north coast of Sumatra in Indonesia, along the same fault zone that triggered the 2004 tsunami disaster.

Phuket Governor Wichai Phraisa-ngop ordered the chiefs of Phuket’s three districts – Muang, Kathu and Thalang – to inform residents and tourists in risk areas to be prepared to evacuate.

The district chiefs ordered sound trucks to tell residents to monitor the situation carefully.

In many cases the advisory was misreported or mistaken as a full-scale evacuation order.

By 7am when the warning was called off, some evacuation safety areas on high ground, including Patong Hill, were full of tourists and residents. None of Phuket’s 19 tsunami evacuation warning towers run by the National Disaster Warning Center had sounded evacuation signals.

NDWC Operations Director Somsak Khaosuwan told the Gazette his agency had carefully monitored sea-level data from its tsunami direct detection buoy off Phuket and other sources and decided not to sound the warning towers anywhere along the Andaman coast.

Advisory SMS messages were sent to provincial governors and others listed on the recipient list, however.

Sources at the NDWC earlier told the Gazette that earthquakes less than 8.0 anywhere along the Sunda Trench off Sumatra carried an extremely low likelihood of causing a statistically significant tsunami along the Andaman coast.

-- Phuket Gazette 2010-04-07

[newsfooter][/newsfooter]

[NBT TV Phuket]

VDO on item-- 2 at http://thainews.prd.go.th/newsenglish/prev...ws_headline=VDO - weekly Andaman News April 9 (whole program) or

Phuket Disaster Prevention and Mitigation chief in Phuket stressed information and knowledge after Wednesday's earthquake caused some false alarms and evacuations.

The 7.8 magnitude earthquake that struck under the sea near northern Sumatra island at 5.15 am local time on Wednesday, led to a Tsunami watch and even some evacuations for people along the coastlines. Media received quick reports from the Thai National Disaster Warning Centre or NDWC estimating the risk of tidal waves. At the same time local authorities were notified through SMS to prepare to evacuate people in case the analysis confirmed a Tsunami. In Thailand the NDWC also relies on buoys installed at Koh Miang near Similan Island in Phang-Nga for wave detection. What happened was some local offices took precautionary measures by taking their vehicles out to announce preparations for evacuation in case of a Tsunami and this led to people's actual evacuation. These happened to both residents and tourists in some hotels who were assisted to move up to higher floors. In Phuket some people went up hills already while some like fisherman and foreign tourists still observed at Patong beach waiting for actual siren warnings from the towers. At Ban Namkem in Phang Nga villagers started to evacuate to designated locations. Phuket Governor Wichai Praisa-Ngob said it was good that people were alert about safety and followed the news and information, but they should not panic. The Phuket Disaster Prevention and Mitigation chief Mr. San Chantawong insisted that in case of any Tsunami the NDWC would make announcements on every TV channel and also radios plus SMS and the warning towers which are triggered from the NDWC. After that people evacuate. The new hotline number for NDWC is 192. He also affirms that all 19 towers in Phuket are functioning well. This is confirmed by an internal (not audible) test every morning at 9 am to check that the tower system is still working. He also reported that Phuket would not run a planned Tsunami evacuation drill previously announced for April as it involved sirens from towers, but instead they will discuss a full scale Tsunami evacuation drill in August.

weekly Andaman News NBT TV (VHF dial) at 8.30am & repeated on satellite C Band (usually net black) frequency 4134 Mhz at symbolate 2530 at 1pm & perhaps repeats on Phuket Cable TV channel 1 at 3.30pm, 7pm, 1.30am & 6.30am, broadcast to Phang Nga, Krabi & Phuket provinces , Friday 9th April 2010 & http://thainews.prd.go.th/newsenglish/ & www.YouTube.com/AndamanNews Send comments to [email protected]