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Tsunami Drill In Phuket On September 13, 2010


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Posted

Tsunami drill in Phuket this month

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The tsunami evacuation on Soi Bangla in Patong in August last year.

PHUKET: -- The National Disaster Warning Center (NDWC) has announced that a full-scale tsunami evacuation drill will be conducted simultaneously in the six Andaman coast provinces on September 13.

All 127 tsunami warning towers in the region will be sounded from 9:30am to 10:30am.

The 19 towers in Phuket are located at: Mai Khao, Nai Yang, Bang Tao, Kamala, Patong, Kata, Karon, Kata Noi, Nai Harn, Rawai, Ao Por, Laem Tukkae, Saphan Hin, Chalong Bay, Ao Yon, Koh Lon and Koh Racha.

While all 19 towers in Phuket will sound the alarm, there will be only one government-agency co-ordinated evacuation drill: at Loma Park in Patong.

In the other Andaman provinces, evacuation drills will be conducted at the tsunami memorial at Ban Nam Kem in Takuapa District, Phang Nga; at Ao Nang in Krabi; at Ban Bang Ben in Kapur District, Ranong; at Samran Beach in Trang; and at Tanyongpo School in La-ngu District in Satun.

The NDWC encourages all Phuket residents and tourists to take part in the drill.

Last year, a similar evacuation drill was held in Patong on August 21. More than 2,000 people took part in the event, led by Deputy Prime Minister Suthep Thaugsuban.

As its list of actions to take to be prepared for a tsunami, the NDWC advises on its website:

• Find out whether your home is located in a tsunami risk zone.

• Know the height of the road at sea level and distance from road to shoreline.

• Be familiar with tsunami warning signs.

• Prepare evacuation plans.

• Choose a safe evacuation site in an elevated area.

• Have an evacuation and disaster kit ready.

• Stay away from beaches or coastal areas while a warning is in effect.

• Have a battery-operated radio for receiving information and news.

If a tsunami warning is sounded, the NDWC further advises:

• In case you hear an official tsunami warning or observe signs of a tsunami, leave the shoreline immediately and move boats to deep water.

• Listen to radio or TV for the latest emergency information.

• Stay away from coastal areas and go to higher ground for safer places.

• Help children, elderly and handicapped people in an evacuation.

• Return home only after authorities announce it is safe to do so.

  • Like 1
Posted

Have they fixed all the warning towers yet? I haven't heard the in Rawai tested for a long time. Maybe a couple of years? The Royal Thai Navy just recovered the non functional tsunami detection buoy last month, I'm sure it hasn't been fixed and put back out to sea yet either. I guess I'll hear it on the 13th or I won't... Good ideas, poor execution...sad.gif

Posted

Have they fixed all the warning towers yet? I haven't heard the in Rawai tested for a long time. Maybe a couple of years? The Royal Thai Navy just recovered the non functional tsunami detection buoy last month, I'm sure it hasn't been fixed and put back out to sea yet either. I guess I'll hear it on the 13th or I won't... Good ideas, poor execution...sad.gif

Nah. Bad ideas, waste of money.

Posted

Have they fixed all the warning towers yet? I haven't heard the in Rawai tested for a long time. Maybe a couple of years? The Royal Thai Navy just recovered the non functional tsunami detection buoy last month, I'm sure it hasn't been fixed and put back out to sea yet either. I guess I'll hear it on the 13th or I won't... Good ideas, poor execution...sad.gif

Nah. Bad ideas, waste of money.

Well you may be correct! The US tried to warn Thailand hours before the 2004 tsunami and apparently no one answered the phone or heeded the warning...

  • 2 weeks later...
Posted

Well I could hear the tower in Rawai from my house, but i read the one in Nai Harn didn't work as someone stole the wiring!

Posted

Well I could hear the tower in Rawai from my house, but i read the one in Nai Harn didn't work as someone stole the wiring!

Also reported its the same one that didnt work last year.

What they didnt clarify tho, is if it was even fixed in the year or if it was simply 'left' broken.

Posted

Phuket siren song: DDPM chief says ‘pump up the volume’

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Patong firefighters assist the disabled and injured during this morning's drill.

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The scene on Patong's infamous Soi Bangla at 10 o'clock this morning.

PHUKET: -- The head of Thailand’s Department of Disaster Prevention and Mitigation (DDPM) pronounced this morning’s tsunami evacuation drill in Patong an overall success, but said he would call for an increase in the volume of the “siren song” from the Soi Bangla tower so that it can be better heard in windy conditions.

More than 1,000 people, mostly students from the three local primary schools, took part in the exercise, which some have quipped is Patong’s answer to the “running of the bulls” in Pamplona, Spain.

There were also a number of VIPs present for the event: DDPM Director-General Wiboon Sanguanpong, Phuket Governor Wichai Phraisa-ngop and his wife Thaisika, Vice Governor Tri Augkaradacha, Patong Mayor Pian Keesin, Phuket Police Commander Pekad Tantipong, DDPM-Phuket chief San Jantharawong, Deputy Commander of the Third Naval Area Command Rear Admiral Rueangtip Thiantong and Kathu District Chief Siriphat Phathakul, as well as Phuket Tourist Police officials and volunteers.

In what, in many ways, resembled the start of a marathon, participants registered beforehand and then gathered at the starting area – the section of Patong Beach near the intersection of the beach road and Soi Bangla.

After the alarm sounded at precisely 9:50am, able-bodied “evacuators” began running the well-worn route up Soi Bangla. Ignoring the morning desolation of side sois like Soi Easy, Soi Crocodile and Soi Seadragon, smiling participants ran straight to the relative safety of the Jungceylon shopping complex on the other side of Rat-U-Thit 200 Pi Road.

Evacuators feigning a variety of physical disabilities and/or injuries were pushed, carried or otherwise transported along by members of various emergency and medical service organizations including DDPM-Phuket, Kusoldharm Foundation, Phuket Ruamjai Kupai Foundation, and Patong Municipality Fire Department.

As in years past, some of those pretending to have suffered injury from the hypothetical inundation were lying on the beach road or up in palm trees, covered in fake blood and putting their acting talents to the test by moaning in agony or screaming for help.

Other volunteers treading water in monsoon-season seas offshore were plucked to safety by workers from the Royal Thai Navy’s new Marine Tourism Security Unit.

Noticeably absent from this year’s show, however, were Royal Thai Navy frogmen dangling by rope from helicopters.

Mr Wiboon announced the drill officially over at about 10:40am. Although overall quite pleased with the drill, he said he would ask the National Disaster Warning Center (NDWC) to find a way to increase the decibel output near the police box at the base of Soi Bangla – the first-built of the 127-unit network of NDWC warning towers in the six Andaman Coast provinces.

Could you hear it? As in past tests of the NDWC tsunami warning system, the Gazette asks for reader feedback. How did the evacuation drill go in your area? Could you hear the siren? Do you think the system is effective?

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-- Phuket Gazette 2010-09-13

Posted (edited)

Well I could hear the tower in Rawai from my house, but i read the one in Nai Harn didn't work as someone stole the wiring!

Also reported its the same one that didnt work last year.

What they didnt clarify tho, is if it was even fixed in the year or if it was simply 'left' broken.

I'm guessing they never fixed it. They put up CCTV cameras over in the beach area of Nai Harn though... It would seem they should test them more often then once a year as their locations near the very salty air would corrode wiring rather quickly. Although I don't think they need to do a full drill, just to test them. And they really aren't that loud.

Mr Wiboon announced the drill officially over at about 10:40am. Although overall quite pleased with the drill, he said he would ask the National Disaster Warning Center (NDWC) to find a way to increase the decibel output near the police box at the base of Soi Bangla – the first-built of the 127-unit network of NDWC warning towers in the six Andaman Coast provinces.

That's odd I didn't hear the waring tower in Rawai until about 10:40 AM.

It seems like nothing is ever really done right here, kind of half- assed, just like the storm drains they put on the high side of the roads. I know water flows downhill, but I guess whoever designed drain system missed that part of physics...unsure.gif

Edited by Jimi007
Posted

Well I could hear the tower in Rawai from my house, but i read the one in Nai Harn didn't work as someone stole the wiring!

Also reported its the same one that didnt work last year.

What they didnt clarify tho, is if it was even fixed in the year or if it was simply 'left' broken.

I'm guessing they never fixed it. They put up CCTV cameras over in the beach area of Nai Harn though...

<snip>

Excellent idea! So, in about 400 - 800 years or so, YouTube can get some good videos of the next tsunami. <_<

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