Indonesia and 20 other countries around the Indian Ocean are taking part in a two-day tsunami early-warning exercise. The drill kicked off at 8am Singapore time on Tuesday (Sep 9).
The exercise is meant to test the countries’ readiness and response times to a potentially devastating event. Two earthquakes will be simulated over successive days. The first one was re-enacted in Southern Java on Tuesday.
At 7am Jakarta time, an 8.8-magnitude undersea earthquake was simulated in Southern Java. Within seconds, it triggered the system in the Earthquake and Tsunami Centre in Jakarta and instantly turned the operational centre into a hive of activity – with the team analysing data that came in at real time.
The early warning centre did not exist 10 years ago. There was no satellite and no sophisticated computers – just good, old radio signals. And it took disaster management agencies more than an hour to realise that a tsunami had struck the coast of Aceh with devastating effects.
Today, it takes them less than two minutes to detect a potential tsunami and send out a warning to more than 20 countries in the Indian Ocean.
Ardito M.Kodijat, Coordinator at UNESCO Indian Ocean Tsunami Information Centre, said: “For what we call the regional tsunami or distant tsunami, which is ocean-wide, the waves will arrive at their coasts in terms of hours. So, having the first bulletin issued in five minutes, I think for the distant tsunami, it gives the countries quite sufficient time (to react).”
The multi-million-dollar system at the Earthquake and Tsunami Centre in Jakarta was developed after the 2004 Boxing Day tsunami on 26 December wiped out the coastlines of Aceh and those of several other Indian Ocean countries, including Thailand and India. It was the deadliest tsunami in living memory, killing more than 200,000 people.
According to the US Geological Survey, the 9-magnitude undersea earthquake had released the energy of 23,000 Hiroshima-type atomic bombs.
Mochammad Riyadi, director of Indonesia’s Earthquake & Tsunami Center, said: “Then, we didn’t use satellite. We had a number of radio links. Those are limited, too. Consequently, when the tsunami struck Aceh we received the information very late. Even our communication system was manually operated.”
The tsunami early-warning exercise is carried out once every two to three years. It involves countries as far as South Africa and Yemen – where tsunami waves could potentially reach. Each country can decide how detailed they want their exercises to be. Some have even involved the evacuation of people.
Just as the exercise was in full swing on Tuesday, the Earthquake and Tsunami Centre in Jakarta picked up an actual 5.2-magnitude earthquake near Sulu in the southern Philippines. It was not strong enough to cause a tsunami. Hence no warning was sent out.
But it shows how critical the centre is. Lives will be saved, as long as people living in coastal areas heed the centre’s warnings.
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