Communities
right around the Indian Ocean were evacuated last night, as
a major earthquake off the coast of Indonesia triggered a series
of tsunami warnings.
Within minutes of the magnitude 8.4 quake, tsunami warnings
had been issued for the south west coast of Sumatra, as well
as for Bangladesh, India, Sri Lanka, the Maldives and even Mozambique,
thousands of kilometres away off Africa’s east coast.
All warnings have since been cancelled.
In Bangladesh, Red Crescent volunteers were mobilized to evacuate
people from areas in the line of the expected tsunami waves.
“The Bangladesh Red Crescent Society (BRCS) has a network
of more than 40,000 volunteers trained for such an event,”
explained Thomas Gurtner, the acting director of the International
Federation’s coordination and programmes division. “Straight
away, they were out in the communities using flags and microphones
and sirens to evacuate people.”
According to Gurtner, people knew what to do because of the
long-term efforts of BRCS to arrange evacuation drills and develop
disaster management plans.
“Communities don't automatically know what to do when
disaster strikes, or when an alert is issued. These alerts have
to be backed up by long-term disaster preparedness activities
to raise community awareness,” he said.
In all, the Red Crescent helped evacuate an estimated half a
million people to Red Crescent shelters and other safe areas.
In Sri Lanka, tsunami warnings rang out along the south-east
coast, carried by the country’s media and relayed via
SMS. In some areas, Red Cross volunteers helped carry the message
out into communities and worked alongside government officials
to evacuate some people.
In India, Red Cross headquarters in Delhi sent tsunami warnings
to the remote state of Tamil Nadu. Within minutes, this information
was relayed to potentially vulnerable communities living along
the coast, with Red Cross volunteers evacuating those thought
to be most at risk.
“Last night’s experience is evidence that our long-term
investment in disaster preparedness initiatives like early warning
systems and contingency planning has paid off,” concluded
Gurtner.
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The
Pacific Tsunami Warning Center issued an Indian Ocean
tsunami warning after the first quake struck and authorities
from Malaysia, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh (REUTERS/Buddhika
Weerasinghe/ courtesy www.alertnet.org)
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