People search through debris in a residential area following an earthquake and tsunami in Palu, Central Sulawesi, Indonesia. Antara Foto/Darwin Fatir/via REUTERS
OCTOBER 1ST, 2018
By Patryk Krych | The World Daily
The killer tsunami’s warning system failure
According to the very same research centre that had developed the Indonesia tsunami warning systems, the island of Sulawesi; one of the islands hit the worst by the tsunami on Friday, had experienced a failure in its warning systems right before the tsunami had struck. Reportedly, the failure had occurred during the “last mile” of the tsunami.
With Monday passing, the total death tolls for the tsunami have risen to 844, part of the blame being directed at the tsunami warning system’s failure after the 7.5 magnitude earthquake that struck Indonesia recently, and brought with it large waves, reaching a height of around six meters, bringing great surprise to Sulawesi’s inhabitants.
The warning system was developed in Germany after the 2004 disaster, when a 9.1 magnitude earthquake in Indonesia had ended up killing 230,000 people from 14 different countries. To be precise, the system was developed by GFZ.
The GFZ Director of Geoservices; Joern Lauterjung, was quoted as saying on Reuters TV; “The problem was the communication between local authorities and people, for example on the beach, such as in Sulawesi.”
He stated that the system had apparently worked as it was intended to, predicting three-meter waves on the NorthWestern sides of the island. A similar problem was experienced by the BMKG tsunami warning systems, with a warning having been made out, but lifted 30 minutes later, after a collection of criticism about the haste with which the warning had been made.
The six-meter-high water waves brought down buildings and were the cause of extensive destruction within Palu -one of the many cities on Sulawesi. Hundreds of people had been gathered on the day for a festival, all on the city beach. It was a scene of shock and terror as waves had appeared with little warning, and swept over the beach – bringing destruction along with them.
“If you look at the entire warning chain from the creation of a warning signal up to the last mile, as we call it, up to the local population in danger, there was a problem there,” Lauterjung continued, “For example, it appears sirens did not work and there were no warnings via loudspeaker vans from police to the local population.”
By Patryk Krych | The World Daily
©2018 THE WORLD DAILY
