Suan Dusit Poll: Tsunami, terrified Thais

By Sodchuen Limkriangkrai.

BANGKOK, MARCH 13 2011 (NNT)- Suan Dusit Poll said, the recent tragedy of Tsunami in Japan, has caused a massive concerns among Thai people, convincing that the government should seek an up-to-date measure of warning system with a responsible team all over the country.

The public surveys on the opinion of Thai people and natural disaster shows that 34.78 percent of people thought the most terrifying natural disaster is tsunami, followed by 30.43 percent with earthquake, and 47.06 percent thought, the recent earthquake in Japan was the biggest hazardous natural disaster, which created a major loss of lives and properties.

51.92 percent are worried, and stressed. The tragedy of natural disaster triggers fascination among 52.86 percent of people, to do more research over the natural disaster. 33.19 percent of the public thought, there ought to be a new, up-to-date, warning system and an improvement should be made, especially at high-risk area. 26.63 percent requests the Government and authorities in charge, to set up an administration center or an agency that is specifically in charge of this matter.

-- NNT 2011-03-13

Money would be better spent on reducing motor vehicle crashes or on public health since more people are likely to die in any given month than a tsunami on any given day.

It's not as if the tsunami warning system on Phuket is reliable is it? So why throw more money away on something too complex for the local municipalities and provincial governments to manage.

Hello, 33.19% thought there needs to be a new up-dated warning system. It was only 2004 when the tsunami hit Pucket. Surely they have an adequate system installed now?

jb1

....and 99.8% are terrified of pee (ghosts).

And yes, I agree with the earlier poster who says they should be more concerned with endangering themselves and others by driving so irresponsibly - particularly regarding children.

Songkran is fast approaching, and by late April, about 350 Thai families will be deeply grieving recently lost loved ones. That's what Thais should be doing something about.

I hope these all these polls make more sense in Thai

If anybody believes that the use of compound questions such as...

Do you believe there ought to be a new, up-to-date, warning system and an improvement should be made, especially at high-risk area?

are used in any credible polls then they ought to think again about believing these nonsense polls put out that never provide any detailed info of the actual questions or the who, where, when and how people were polled let alone how many were polled and the margin of error.

98.7654% of all statistics are made up!

Hello, 33.19% thought there needs to be a new up-dated warning system. It was only 2004 when the tsunami hit Pucket. Surely they have an adequate system installed now?

jb1

They did, but then the battery ran out in the buoy and it was deemed too expensive to replace it (the battery)

Hello, 33.19% thought there needs to be a new up-dated warning system. It was only 2004 when the tsunami hit Pucket. Surely they have an adequate system installed now?

jb1

They did, but then the battery ran out in the buoy and it was deemed too expensive to replace it (the battery)

It's funny you should say that. I was thinking the same thing myself. Just how many things do you see not working, because the battery has run out?

jb1

Hello, 33.19% thought there needs to be a new up-dated warning system. It was only 2004 when the tsunami hit Pucket. Surely they have an adequate system installed now?

jb1

They did, but then the battery ran out in the buoy and it was deemed too expensive to replace it (the battery)

It's funny you should say that. I was thinking the same thing myself. Just how many things do you see not working, because the battery has run out?

jb1

Yes, my girlfriends vibrator for one.!!!

fact of the matter is that when an earthquake occurs that is so close to the coast line there is very little in the way of an early warning system that can be implemented. the wave moves at 500 to 600 miles an hour - to qoute an expert " by the time we realise an eartquake has occurred and a tsunami has been formed it has already hit the coast"

just my two penneth the best bet would be a system of sirens along the coastline, early warnings would have to come from seismic centres from outside thailand

And this survey would not exist or even be noted had a tsunami not happened somewhere else on the planet. News worthy = stringers being paid for (inaccurate) words quoting unverifiable statistics.

The consequences of a tsunami hurtling up the Gulf of Thailand do not bear thinking about. How far inland would one have to scoot to be sure of safety? Doesn't the littoral zone extend for miles? Goodbye Map Ta Phut industrial zone, goodbye Swampy, BKK paralysed, Laem Chabang in chaos, goodbye tourist trade. Some scenario.

Yesterday I overheard a guy in a bar asking what the effect of the tsunami would have on Japan's burgeoning porn industry. What a strange sense of priorities.

Hello, 33.19% thought there needs to be a new up-dated warning system. It was only 2004 when the tsunami hit Pucket. Surely they have an adequate system installed now?

jb1

They did, but then the battery ran out in the buoy and it was deemed too expensive to replace it (the battery)

And i think the buoy was supplied free

Hello, 33.19% thought there needs to be a new up-dated warning system. It was only 2004 when the tsunami hit Pucket. Surely they have an adequate system installed now?

jb1

They did, but then the battery ran out in the buoy and it was deemed too expensive to replace it (the battery)

Correct, they said at the time that the people who donated the system (USA) should pay to replace batteries - f**kin incredible

In another survey it was discovered that 98.4 percent of Thais have no fear of blindly turning left into traffic.

Hello, 33.19% thought there needs to be a new up-dated warning system. It was only 2004 when the tsunami hit Pucket. Surely they have an adequate system installed now?

jb1

They did, but then the battery ran out in the buoy and it was deemed too expensive to replace it (the battery)

And i think the buoy was supplied free

Yes it was supplied for free by the US and then became inoperable (providing bad data) at which time the Thai Government decided it also wasn't a proper tool and decided to buy and deploy 3 separate buoys. When the battery died on the broken buoy it was not replaced and the plan was to eventually try to fix it and use it as a back-up in the event one of the 3 died. But then the US decided to replace the buoy they donated with a new one. I haven't kept up with the story to know where things are at now but do recall the one donated to Indonesia also stopped working and there were issues of theft of cabling, vandalism and such surrounding both the Indonesia and Thai systems deployed originally.

Personally I think these systems are very costly and over complicated and do little to really confirm a Tsunami. The US has the best system in the pacific and at least from the stories I read there was little to no advanced announcement of they size and scope of the Tsunami going to hit Hawaii and the US Western coast many hours after the earthquake. Scientists put out warnings simply on the size and location of the initial quake.

Earthquakes are monitored all over the globe and simply putting out alerts based on earthquakes would seem in my opinion to be a lot less costly and safer than very expensive sensitive equipment that has one of its main components out in the middle of a sea and needs constant testing and monitoring to even know if it might work.

Edited March 13, 201115 yr by Nisa

Money would be better spent on reducing motor vehicle crashes or on public health since more people are likely to die in any given month than a tsunami on any given day.

It's not as if the tsunami warning system on Phuket is reliable is it? So why throw more money away on something too complex for the local municipalities and provincial governments to manage.

Where was this poll taken in TAT offices, ???? only Tourism Auth Thailand would be 50% stressed. The poll is rediculous--is it supposed to represent Thailand ??? in the north here most people don't know there was a disaster in Japan--and it is not affecting them so why should they care.................This is the rural attitude here....it's not bashing--some people in other areas may see it differently..........................THAI people dont know what polls are,,ask them in thai if they understand, they will give you a dissinterested look.

Edited March 13, 201115 yr by ginjag

Could it be said that the Poll was a Norwegian Blue? And those taking it off their perches and then parroting?

Hello, 33.19% thought there needs to be a new up-dated warning system. It was only 2004 when the tsunami hit Pucket. Surely they have an adequate system installed now?

jb1

They did, but then the battery ran out in the buoy and it was deemed too expensive to replace it (the battery)

It's funny you should say that. I was thinking the same thing myself. Just how many things do you see not working, because the battery has run out?

jb1

Yes, my girlfriends vibrator for one.!!!

Well I guess you will have to put the beer down and step up to the plate and use the old fashion manual method.

fact of the matter is that when an earthquake occurs that is so close to the coast line there is very little in the way of an early warning system that can be implemented. the wave moves at 500 to 600 miles an hour - to qoute an expert " by the time we realise an eartquake has occurred and a tsunami has been formed it has already hit the coast"

just my two penneth the best bet would be a system of sirens along the coastline, early warnings would have to come from seismic centres from outside thailand

The quake occurred at 2:46 pm local time

6 minutes later the PACIFIC TSUNAMI WARNING CENTER/NOAA/NWS its first tsunami alert.

Japan started its tsunami alerts giving people 30-60 minutes warning. That was enough time for large numbers of people to seek higher ground or to flee inland. Japan takes earthquakes and tsunamis seriously. Hawaii had hours to prepare, Unfortunately a number of people in the mainland USA decided to ignore the warnings and about 5 were swept out to sea with one dead.

Thailand doesn't have a strategy. The failure of a government to respond doesn't mean that prevention and preparedness is useless. It just means it is useless in Thailand until someone makes an effort.

Fire codes, road safety, food hygiene all get the same treatment as catastrophe management plans in Thailand.

fact of the matter is that when an earthquake occurs that is so close to the coast line there is very little in the way of an early warning system that can be implemented. the wave moves at 500 to 600 miles an hour - to qoute an expert " by the time we realise an eartquake has occurred and a tsunami has been formed it has already hit the coast"

just my two penneth the best bet would be a system of sirens along the coastline, early warnings would have to come from seismic centres from outside thailand

The quake occurred at 2:46 pm local time

6 minutes later the PACIFIC TSUNAMI WARNING CENTER/NOAA/NWS its first tsunami alert.

Japan started its tsunami alerts giving people 30-60 minutes warning. That was enough time for large numbers of people to seek higher ground or to flee inland. Japan takes earthquakes and tsunamis seriously. Hawaii had hours to prepare, Unfortunately a number of people in the mainland USA decided to ignore the warnings and about 5 were swept out to sea with one dead.

Thailand doesn't have a strategy. The failure of a government to respond doesn't mean that prevention and preparedness is useless. It just means it is useless in Thailand until someone makes an effort.

Fire codes, road safety, food hygiene all get the same treatment as catastrophe management plans in Thailand.

Agreed, the problem being not one person can turn things around, It needs the Thai people to do that and at this time the interest from the Thai in the street, is nearly a negative. I have been put off from commenting to posts and from posts because I and others posts have been taken out, because of some do gooders deem the posts to be BASHERS...near all the posts today are in some form or other Thai bashing. this post geriatrickid has given a good post, it is critical of the system but quite correct. The problem as I stated before-the threads invite anti/comments, and 80% are .

fact of the matter is that when an earthquake occurs that is so close to the coast line there is very little in the way of an early warning system that can be implemented. the wave moves at 500 to 600 miles an hour - to qoute an expert " by the time we realise an eartquake has occurred and a tsunami has been formed it has already hit the coast"

just my two penneth the best bet would be a system of sirens along the coastline, early warnings would have to come from seismic centres from outside thailand

The quake occurred at 2:46 pm local time

6 minutes later the PACIFIC TSUNAMI WARNING CENTER/NOAA/NWS its first tsunami alert.

Japan started its tsunami alerts giving people 30-60 minutes warning. That was enough time for large numbers of people to seek higher ground or to flee inland. Japan takes earthquakes and tsunamis seriously. Hawaii had hours to prepare, Unfortunately a number of people in the mainland USA decided to ignore the warnings and about 5 were swept out to sea with one dead.

Thailand doesn't have a strategy. The failure of a government to respond doesn't mean that prevention and preparedness is useless. It just means it is useless in Thailand until someone makes an effort.

Fire codes, road safety, food hygiene all get the same treatment as catastrophe management plans in Thailand.

Keep in mind the Alert from the US Based System was only in response to an earthquake happening and included the following:

EVALUATION

NO DESTRUCTIVE WIDESPREAD TSUNAMI THREAT EXISTS BASED ON HISTORICAL EARTHQUAKE AND TSUNAMI DATA.

HOWEVER - EARTHQUAKES OF THIS SIZE SOMETIMES GENERATE LOCAL TSUNAMIS THAT CAN BE DESTRUCTIVE ALONG COASTS LOCATED WITHIN A HUNDRED KILOMETERS OF THE EARTHQUAKE EPICENTER. AUTHORITIES IN THE REGION OF THE EPICENTER SHOULD BE AWARE OF THIS POSSIBILITY AND TAKE APPROPRIATE ACTION.

THIS WILL BE THE ONLY BULLETIN ISSUED FOR THIS EVENT UNLESS ADDITIONAL INFORMATION BECOMES AVAILABLE.

------------------

As far as I can tell the next alert was an hour later stating a Tsunami did occur along Japan's coast and now they are issuing action alerts of a possible impending Tsunami.

Keep in mind too that those swept up by waves in the US were there to photograph the Tsunami and were in a very dangerous area were people often get swept up by waves. It is not even clear yet if the Tsunami had anything to do with this death beyond that being the reason they went to this dangerous area of the coast.

Japan is one of the best prepared places in the world for natural disaster but they do not yet posses a real time system for Tsunami monitoring even though they have one of the best systems in the world. The Tsunami hit Japan within an hour after the quake and I have little doubt that they are going to determe most deaths occurred due to the Tsunami as opposed to the direct results of the 8.9 (one of largest in history) earthquake.

Simply put the best Tsunami system is alerting any coastal area of a possible Tsunami whenever an earthquake happens in an area that could cause a Tsunami there. No matter what system you have some people will not believe the alarms or think the Tsunami will be that bad ... this is just human nature even in a place such as Japan that has so many natural disasters as opposed to Thailand which has had few.

Edited March 14, 201115 yr by Nisa

And as a follow-up the US Based System (considered the best - PACIFIC TSUNAMI WARNING CENTER/NOAA/NWS) couldn't even clearly state if a Tsunami did in fact impact Japan after it clearly did.

EVALUATION SEA LEVEL READINGS INDICATE A TSUNAMI WAS GENERATED. IT MAY HAVE BEEN DESTRUCTIVE ALONG COASTS NEAR THE EARTHQUAKE EPICENTER. FOR THOSE AREAS - WHEN NO MAJOR WAVES ARE OBSERVED FOR TWO HOURS AFTER THE ESTIMATED TIME OF ARRIVAL OR DAMAGING WAVES HAVE NOT OCCURRED FOR AT LEAST TWO HOURS THEN LOCAL AUTHORITIES CAN ASSUME THE THREAT IS PASSED. DANGER TO BOATS AND COASTAL STRUCTURES CAN CONTINUE FOR SEVERAL HOURS DUE TO THE CONTINUING SEA LEVEL CHANGES AND RAPID CURRENTS. AS LOCAL CONDITIONS CAN CAUSE A WIDE VARIATION IN TSUNAMI WAVE ACTION THE ALL CLEAR DETERMINATION MUST BE MADE BY LOCAL AUTHORITIES. NO TSUNAMI THREAT EXISTS FOR OTHER COASTAL AREAS IN THE PACIFIC ALTHOUGH SOME OTHER AREAS MAY EXPERIENCE SMALL NON-DESTRUCTIVE SEA LEVEL CHANGES LASTING UP TO SEVERAL HOURS.THIS WILL BE THE FINAL BULLETIN ISSUED FOR THIS EVENT UNLESSADDITIONAL INFORMATION BECOMES AVAILABLE.THE JAPAN METEOROLOGICAL AGENCY MAY ALSO ISSUE TSUNAMI MESSAGESFOR THIS EVENT TO COUNTRIES IN THE NORTHWEST PACIFIC AND SOUTHCHINA SEA REGION. IN CASE OF CONFLICTING INFORMATION... THEMORE CONSERVATIVE INFORMATION SHOULD BE USED FOR SAFETY.THE WEST COAST/ALASKA TSUNAMI WARNING CENTER WILL ISSUE PRODUCTSFOR ALASKA...BRITISH COLUMBIA...WASHINGTON...OREGON...CALIFORNIA.

Bottom line is these are silly non-committal warnings and people are better off being warned an earthquake has occurred that could cause a Tsunami between such and such time. These type of wishy washy warnings do little especially given the fact it was clear to those swept up by the sea at the time of this warning that there was no doubt a dangerous Tsunami had occurred and would be spreading.

Edited March 14, 201115 yr by Nisa

Money would be better spent on reducing motor vehicle crashes or on public health since more people are likely to die in any given month than a tsunami on any given day.

It's not as if the tsunami warning system on Phuket is reliable is it? So why throw more money away on something too complex for the local municipalities and provincial governments to manage.

True. Tsunami warning systems are incredibly hard to manage, deploy and maintain and even if these things are done, there is still no guaranteed accuracy and give a false sense of both security while also causing problems because of false alerts. The Indian Ocean had no Tsunami warning systems prior to 2004 and not even sure they have any real ones now even with the UN trying to deploy them. Tsunamis based in the Indian Ocean are rare. It would be much wiser to simply react to any earthquakes that could possible cause a Tsunami in the small percentage of Thai Coastal areas that would be exposed to such an event.

These things also need to be deployed far off coast to provide any kind of warning and even a large Tsunami that reaches the shore has very little height when out in the open waters making it incredibly difficult to measure and predict with any accuracy.

Edited March 14, 201115 yr by Nisa