Thailand: Phuket disaster chief reassures on tsunami early warning
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.
Mr Chantawong 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.