Why Indonesia's tsunami alert system is far from ready

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/5191190.stm
Indonesia tsunami system 'not ready'

By Laura Smith-Spark BBC News

Eighteen months after the devastating Indian Ocean tsunami, hundreds have died after a giant wave struck the Indonesian island of Java.

Some villagers say there was little or no warning ahead of the tsunami

Their deaths have raised questions about the failure of a promised Indian Ocean tsunami early warning system to sound an adequate alert.

More than 500 people died when the tsunami struck Java's southern coast on Monday.

Witnesses have said people had little or no warning to flee the 2m-high wave triggered by an undersea earthquake.

Java resident Elan Jayalani, whose village of Batukaras was one of those affected, told the BBC: "There was some confusion about the warning.

"We were told that there had been an earthquake and the tsunami might come in a couple of days... we never expected it."

The new Indian Ocean early warning system - proposed after the December 2004 tsunami which claimed 200,000 lives - was said by the UN to be "up and running" late last year.

So why did a warning not reach Java's affected communities in time?

Indonesian earthquake official Fauzi told the BBC News website that although progress had been made, there were still serious shortcomings in Indonesia's monitoring systems and communications network.

Many people have been displaced after their homes were destroyed

These were compounded by the speed at which Monday's tsunami struck, said Fauzi, who works for Indonesia's Bureau of Meteorology and Geophysics (BMG).

It currently takes scientists up to 60 minutes to receive and analyse the data from 30 seismological stations and send out a warning.

With only a 20-minute interval between the magnitude 7.7 undersea earthquake and the arrival of the waves on shore, there was just no time to warn people, Fauzi said.

However, work is under way to improve the system.

• Thirty more seismological stations are to be installed this year

• A total of 160 will be in place when the network is completed in 2009, cutting the time taken to receive and process earthquake data to less than five minutes

• At present two ocean pressure sensors - part of the Deep-ocean Assessment and Reporting of Tsunami (Dart) system - are in place. Another 15-20 Dart buoys are planned by 2009

• Four land-based tide gauges are now in place in Aceh, Nias island, Padang and Bali. An international network spanning the Indian Ocean continues to be updated and expanded

'Unexpected'

The final part of the jigsaw is getting the warning message from tsunami monitoring centres to Jakarta and - in a matter of minutes - to often isolated communities.

[It's] a hard thing to keep up that level of awareness and to have people be able to react quickly when an event occurs Charles McCreary Pacific Tsunami Warning Center, Hawaii

Fauzi said: "We don't have the systems yet so what we do is call by telephone. But sometimes the lines are busy and it's very difficult to get through.

"We need to set up an exclusive communication system because otherwise it's going to be the same problem. If we use public communication systems, it's not going to work very well."

In the meantime, officials were making use of SMS messages to contact communities at risk, he said.

Networks of sirens are also being set up this year in the Aceh, Padang and Bali regions to alert people who may be too poor to own TVs, radios or mobile phones. Another is to be built in Java next year.

Awareness level

Educating vulnerable coastal communities so they know how to react if an earthquake strikes or a tsunami warning is issued is also key.

It remains difficult to get warning messages to all vulnerable people

When the waters receded before the giant waves hit Java's coast, witnesses reported people running on to the exposed seabed to look - a reaction that cost many lives in the 2004 tsunami.

Charles McCreary, director of the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center in Hawaii, told BBC News that, despite improvements in warning systems, basic safety messages had still not reached everyone.

"The strategy has always been that if you're near the ocean and you feel a strong earthquake, that is your warning and you need to move to high ground or inland as quickly as possible.

"But that's a hard thing to keep up that level of awareness and to have people be able to react quickly when an event occurs - and it looks that there was a failure of that today."

Financial help continues to come from governments and organisations including Germany - a partner in building the Dart system - Japan, China and the UN, Fauzi said.

But, he added, establishing such a complex new monitoring system inevitably "takes time".

"Also, right now, there are difficulties with our human resources because this is our first experience of setting up a tsunami system," he said.

"What we need is to ask the developed countries also to assist us with expertise."

INDONESIA TSUNAMI WARNING SYSTEMS Germany, Japan, China and the United Nations, among others, are contributing towards Indonesia's tsunami warning system Between 15 and 20 Dart buoys are expected to be in place by 2009 Indonesia also has 30 seismographic stations and plans 30 more by end of 2006, 160 by 2009 Indian Ocean tsunami warning system

Asia tsunami warning system ready

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/5126710.stm

Most had no warning of the 2004 tsunami until giant waves appeared

A tsunami warning system covering the Indian Ocean region is now "up and running", Unesco has said.

The UN organisation, which has overseen the project, says the whole region can now receive and distribute warnings of possible tsunamis.

The system is in place 18 months after the devastating tsunami of December 2004 that killed more than 200,000.

The Pacific region has had a system for 40 years and others are planned for the Atlantic, Mediterranean and Caribbean.

Work unfinished

Koichiro Matsuura, director-general of the UN's scientific and cultural organisation, said the nations involved should be "justly proud of having done all this and much more".

The UN says people must know what to do when warned

There are 26 national tsunami information centres receiving information from 25 new seismographic stations.

There are also three deep-ocean sensors to detect and report tsunamis.

But Mr Matsuura warned the work was not yet finished.

He said the system would suffer if there was no coordination between the different nations.

"The open and free exchange of data and the full interoperability of national systems is absolutely crucial for success," he said.

Mr Matsuura also said that even a 100% successful warning system would be ineffective "if people do not know how to respond to the emergency".

The system is being overseen by Unesco's Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission.

A massive earthquake beneath the ocean on 26 December 2004 sent giant waves crashing ashore in places as far apart as Indonesia, Sri Lanka, Thailand and Somalia.

The only warning most people had was the sight of the waves heading towards them. About 1.5 million people were left homeless in the region after the wall of water stripped away trees, houses and whole communities.

Reconstruction could take between five years and a decade.

Pacific states hold tsunami test

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/4988492.stm

Scientists were pleased with the high participation in the test

More than 30 countries around the Pacific Ocean have tested a system to warn them of approaching tsunamis.

The exercise began with a mock alert at the Tsunami Warning Centre in Hawaii.

According to the scenario, a magnitude 9.2 earthquake had struck near the coast of Chile, sending a tsunami racing across the eastern Pacific.

A second mock alert, involving a make-believe earthquake north of the Philippines, has been testing responses in the western Pacific.

The drill is thought to have been broadly successful, although there was some delays with communications systems in Thailand.

'Success'

Governments are reporting back on how efficiently they received the tsunami warnings, relayed through various circuits including weather services, emails and faxes.

They've contacted each country that is participating and just about every single one of them have received the bulletins Delores Clark US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration

The aim of the drill, co-ordinated by the Pacific Tsunami Warning Centre in Hawaii, is also to measure how well the message is relayed through local emergency systems.

At the start of the test, a beeping noise sounded throughout the warning centre on Hawaii's Ewa Beach, and within minutes the first alerts were sent out to 30 participating countries.

In a second part of the drill, officials in Thailand, Malaysia, American Samoa and the Philippines staged real tsunami evacuations.

On Wednesday morning, a mock warning of an earthquake north of the Philippines sent nearly 1,000 people in the coastal village of Buhatan scurrying for the hills.

In Malaysia, villages along the coast of Sabah state on Borneo were also evacuated as part of the drill.

"It's gone very, very well so far," a spokeswoman for the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration told AFP news agency at the end of the first stage.

"They've contacted each country that is participating and just about every single one of them have received the bulletins," Delores Clark added.

The second part was not quite as smooth. A crucial link in the communications chain to alert people in Thailand failed to work, a disaster response official said.

The country's National Disaster Warning Centre said the problem was caused by an overloaded telephone system which delayed public text message alerts for several hours.

"This is something we need to improve, otherwise it may cause great damage," Samith Dhammasaroj, the head of the centre, told Reuters news agency.

Real thing

Correspondents say governments' interest in tsunami alerts had waned before the catastrophic Indian Ocean tsunami of December 2004, which took more than 200,000 lives.

Some countries planned evacuations at coastal areas

Two actual earthquakes struck on Tuesday during the test - a magnitude 7.4 quake north of New Zealand, and a magnitude 6.8 off Indonesia. No casualties were reported.

Another mock test on Wednesday is envisaging a magnitude 8.8 earthquake north of the Philippines.

Officials there, and in Thailand, Malaysia and American Samoa, will go one step further by staging real evacuations.

A Pacific warning system has been in place since 1965, but this is largest test of the system since its inception.

The exercise may serve as a model for future tests in the Indian Ocean.