Another day of mayhem down at the beach thanks to the geniuses at TAT. Wouldnt it be wise to tell people that there was a drill? The whole beach cleared. Kids were crying. People were absolutely terrified. Just pure insanity

Finally stopped after 15mins

I reckon about 5000 or 6000 people ran off the beach in panic

No one is running and the drill has been published in all papers and banners, maybe read sometimes instead of just posting you bs again.

No one is running and the drill has been published in all papers and banners, maybe read sometimes instead of just posting you bs again.

I was at Kata beach and the beach emptied out within minutes. Were you there were you?

5.000/6.000 people on the beach.

Very relaxing I'm sure.

Get off the beachski! HOW do you say it in Russian? Also pretty sure everyone could afford the THB100 or so for a coke, vulgartiy of the Essex kind

Inflammatory post removed. Stay on the topic and not throw insults at fellow members.

Tourists deny Phuket tsunami drill panic

PHUKET: Tourists on the beach at Kata this afternoon have denied an online report that there was panic just before 3 pm when tsunami warning sirens sounded for an evacuation practice.

Naraporn Tuarob

Thursday 21 February 2013, 07:01PM

Flashback to the real tsunami alert in April last year - thousands wait in the hills above Patong.

The panic was reported at 2:54 pm by a member of the ThaiVisa.com community who reported, Another day of mayhem down at the beach.

Wouldnt it be wise to tell people that there was a drill?

The whole beach cleared. Kids were crying. People were absolutely terrified. Just pure insanity.

But beachgoers The Phuket News spoke with said there was no panic. Quite the opposite. Many had heard announcements yesterday that there was to be a drill today, and were expecting it. Those who did not know were quickly informed by those who did.

One tourist from Hawaii, who asked not to be named, said, I was here when the tsunami took place in 2004. Back then the water receded a long way, so it was obvious to me we should run away.

He was in the sea yesterday when announcements were made of the upcoming drill, so did not hear them, but today he heard the warning message, in four languages (Thai, Japanese, Chinese and English), which stated that the warning was a drill.

A Thai vendor, Chamaiporn Boongrajang, 34, told The Phuket News, There were announcements yesterday. I saw only two Thai people running away today. Some people waited in the water when the announcement was made and most of them came out of the water and waited.

Ten minutes later, everything was back to normal.

The Hawaiian tourist said that the sound quality from the speakers on the tsunami warning tower and official vehicles was good and clear.

If anything, the reaction was too laid back. The Hawaiian said, "The physical presence of authority needs to be there to make sure the beach is cleared. If it was the real thing, people would not have left.

Experience tells a different story. On April 11 last year a full tsunami warning, triggered by an 8.7-Richter quake near Sumatra, worked well, clearing the beaches and low-lying towns along Phukets west coast.

There were some injuries reported, and cases of people who had not heard the warning, but the vast majority of people were well out of the danger zone by the time of the predicted arrival of the wave.

In the event, there was no tsunami.

.....

Infinite loop source: http://www.thephuketnews.com/tourists-deny-phuket-tsunami-drill-%E2%80%98panic%E2%80%99-37270.php

Ps. Formating nor preview is not working and I could not check how the post looks like.

Are you sure it wasn't a "Pitbull on the loose drill?" :)

Isnt he in Jail??????

The phuket news gets its sources from forums with people that have Ivan Darago avatars? Quality paper trawling on a slow news day.

3rd rate rag.

I am available for interviews from the Phuket News to give my account, but I do charge.

The Phuket news has unfortunately gone down quite a lot lately. Mostly due trying to imitate yellow newspapers.

If the topic can sell, that's what matters..news are second on the priority.

I'll hope the'll get their act together again. They used to be good.

 

Finally stopped after 15mins

 

Is this picture showing all, the people running? Or showing it stopped after 15 minutes? either way, looks like a normal afternoon in the beach.....can even see a sun lounger vendor assaulting a tourist in the background. ;-)

The Phuket news has unfortunately gone down quite a lot lately. Mostly due trying to imitate yellow newspapers.

If the topic can sell, that's what matters..news are second on the priority.

I'll hope the'll get their act together again. They used to be good.

I never read it once and i hope it goes under.

They must be scraping the bottom of the barrel if they are sourcing information from a internet forum. Hacks.

Well, you should read it once, twice, trice or even more time to get the picture.

If an company makes every now and then, it's not alerting. But if there seems to be more and more mistakes, and those are not fixed, then it's starts to be alerting. This is where the phuket news is right now.

I hope they'll figure out that the way they are now heading is not the best in a long run, and that they'll get their standards back to what those were before. That was above any Phuket newspaper.

 

Finally stopped after 15mins

 

Is this picture showing all, the people running? Or showing it stopped after 15 minutes? either way, looks like a normal afternoon in the beach.....can even see a sun lounger vendor assaulting a tourist in the background. ;-)

notice the lack of people? Go down at the same time tomorrow and see how many more people are there. Ill be heading down to the boathouse around the same time to take another couple of pics to compare. Even the moderator said it sounded very realistic. And heard screaming up the mountain