Government allays unfounded fears

Tsunami evacuation plan in situ

By Umangi de Mel

The 2004 Boxing Day tsunami killed over 200,000 people across the South and South East Asia. Doctor Phil Cummins of Geoscience Australia says if what the Indian geologists have to say about how the fault is expressed at the earth surface is true, it would mean a much longer section of about 900 kilometres of crack is under water.

"This coupled off with the direction the plates are moving in would make the fault capable of generating a tsunami" says Dr. Cummins.

The powerful earthquake measuring 8.2 in the Richter scale which struck Indonesia, Sumatra region triggered tsunami warning in the Indian Ocean. Obviously pushing the panic button in coastal areas across South East Asia the recurring alarm kept people on pins. For those who physically experienced it three years back, life became hell once again. Panic was the key word when folks started running for dear life.

As predicted by the geologists world over, people will be constantly saddled by the tsunami fear, it's high time someone took steps to minimise all the difficulties by a solid plan of evacuation.

"As and when an earthquake strikes anywhere in the world we instantly get to know. And we inform the media and the public. Normally the time duration from the time of warning to the time of impact depends on the epicentre of the earthquake. The one in Java in 2004 took about two hours to hit the coastal areas. And the recent one which fortunately didn't hit us was expected after three hours as the earthquake struck about nearly 40,000 kilometres away. But there was a possible threat to Sri Lanka as well" says S. H. Kariyawasam, Deputy Director of Meteorological Department. He reveals that tsunami doesn't strike for every single earthquake, "Just because the Richter scale indicates a high magnitude it doesn't necessarily trigger off a tsunami.

A tsunami wave is determined on how the earthquake strikes. There should be a vertical change in the border line of the plate tectonics of earth that causes a vertical motion that builds a giant wave as the water level above the plate goes up. True we still don't have the kind of technology to confirm if a tsunami is definitely going to hit us which is why we are working on a plan to set up tsunami detectors called 'dartbuoys' in the Indian Ocean though, its not completely established yet."

"We have a vast plan of evacuation. In the case of Galle district there is about 898 Grama Niladhari (GN) divisions out of which 148 are prone to tsunami. We've got orders from the disaster management centre that comes under Ministry of Disaster Management to conduct evacuation drills which is a planned procedure for evacuating people from their houses to safe places. We've conducted this at 75 per cent of the DN divisions that started in February 2006. People were aware of the procedure. They know how to evacuate after the alarms raised by the Fire Brigade and the safe routs they have to use. Each division has a safe place in case of an emergency of this nature.

Also we've appointed five sub-committees under the DN divisions called 'Early warning committee which disseminate the warning to the respective GNs, rescue and evacuating committee that attends to sick and old people along with pregnant mothers, camp administrative committee, first aid committee and village protection committee'. Each consists of 10 people who have been trained for each task," says Lieutenant Colonel P. P. J. Fernando of The District Disaster Management Centre, Galle District.

He further states that although they have a plan they can't control panic as it's the nature of human beings. True to the word people irrespective of the awareness programmes conducted will panic naturally since they have barely had time to get over the shock three years back. Apparently hospitals are also on the look out since the threats are increasing by the day.

"The moment we get the information we try to verify how accurate it is according to the gravity of the situation and after verifying the casualties we sent the ambulances to those places. When the victims are brought, we sent them to sections according to their conditions" says Dr. Shelton Perera, Director, Karapitiya Hospital.

Talking about the issue Chief Inspector J. Balagalla, Headquarters Chief Inspector (HQI), Galle states that they have come up with a proper evacuation plan. 'As soon as the warning is given we inform the people over the loud speakers to go to safe places. Starting from the Galle Police area we divert those who come in to Galle via the Colombo Road to Karapitiya from Gintota and Dadalla junctions. Also we've instructed the bus drivers at the Galle Bus Terminal to take the buses that face the Circular Road to Binge Junction and we have a similar plan for the Matara Bus Terminal as well. Whereas the Galle Prison is concerned we take the prisoners to the buildings inside the prison and have it fully guarded. Unfortunately we've only two vehicles to carry out our task. One team is sent to Mahamodara Hospital to assist pregnant women.

Those who can walk are diverted to the temple nearby and others are transported to Karapitiya Hospital." Also the Police claim to have taken steps to assign more teams to guard deserted houses and shops while the owners are away, in spite of the risk.

However, it's alleged that group of people in Ratmalana were turned away from religious places when they sought refuge from the impending danger.

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