Phuket tsunami alert canceled

PHUKET: -- A tsunami alert for Phuket and five other nearby Andaman provinces this afternoon was canceled less than a hour after it had been issued.

The National Disaster Warning Center issued the alert for Phuket, Phang Nga, Krabi, Satun, Ranong and Trang at 1:18pm.

The alert followed a 7.4-Richter earthquake which struck off northern Sumatra in Indonesia at 12.59pm.

The alert was canceled at 2:11pm.

Acting Second Lt Pattanapong Chaiyapal, an officer at the NDWC, said, “We canceled the alert after we didn't detect any waves.”

A similar event occurred in Phuket a month ago, on April 7, when a 7.5-Richter quake, also off northern Sumatra, prompted an alert which was canceled less than two hours later when no waves were detected.

However, unlike today, the April 7 alert was misinterpreted by many as a full-scale evacuation order, resulting in widespread panic in some beach areas of Phuket.

Today's earthquake, as well as the one of April 7, occurred along the same fault zone that triggered the 2004 tsunami disaster.

But sources at the NDWC have told the Phuket Gazette that earthquakes of less than 8.0 in that zone, known as the Sundra Trench, carry an extremely low likelihood of causing a statistically significant tsunami in Phuket or elsewhere along the Andaman coast.

The quake that triggered the 2004 tsunami, in which more than 5,000 people lost their lives, measured 8.1 on the Richter scale

-- Phuket Gazette 2010-05-09

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A Thai tsunami watch was cancelled today after no waves were detected in Thai waters.

The tsunami watch followed a 7.4 magnitude earthquake, which struck off northern Sumatra in Indonesia at around 12.59 Thai time on Sunday afternoon 9 May. Some people who were in tall buildings in southern Thailand felt the earthquake. The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center in Hawaii, USA, issued a tsunami watch for Indonesia only, while the Thai National Disaster Warning Center (NDWC) in Bangkok sent SMS messages to officials & media to keep watch and closely follow the NDWC's instructions.

In Phuket, sea gypsies in Laem Tukhae on Ko Sireh, east of Phuket City evacuated to safe shelters at a local school. They said they felt the earthquake. Some however kept up their routines while waiting for official warnings and kept eyes on the seawater level. Meanwhile in Patong on the west coast, residents and tourists carried on as normal, some sunbathing and walking on the beach, after a short heavy rainfall at about the same time. After no tsunami wave detections, the NDWC sent out SMS to revoke the watch at 14.11 Thai time. The tsunami warning towers were not activated because there was never any official warning issued today.

For more info NDWC's telephone hotline is 192.

From 'Andaman News' team, NBT TV Phuket, Sunday 9 May 2010