Faster dissemination of tsunami warnings from Met. Department

Shirley Wijesinghe

COLOMBO: Twenty five countries in the Indian Ocean region are in a position to receive hazard advisories based on seismic waves information from Pacific Tsunami Warning Centre (PTWC) in Hawaii and Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA) in Tokyo through the communication centres by their collective effort.

A report of Department of Meteorology described how we were safe after the 9.3 magnitude earthquake resulting in over 285,000 people killed and displaced more than one million in the countries bordering the Indian Ocean.

The Department of Meteorology (DoM) was formally designated as the national focal point to receive and disseminate tsunami warning in March,2005. At present, Interim Tsunami Warning Centre in the DoM which works round the clock receives tsunami information from Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA) and Pacific Tsunami Warning Centre(PTWC).

Facilities at the Centre have been improved to disseminate warnings without any delay to the public. Several communication pathways, including mass media, police communication system and military communication networks have been identified to disseminate the warnings to the public quickly. The progress report of the Department of Meteorology detailed their capability of detecting and disseminating the warnings more quickly to the public.

On December 26, 2004, such a system existed only in the Pacific Ocean basin. The PTWC in Hawaii is part of the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) of National Weather Service. Until a few years ago, the PTWC served the Pacific Basin as a regional and long distance tsunami warning centre and as a local tsunami warning centre for Hawaii.

Today it serves as an interim tsunami warning centre for Indian ocean in cooperation with the Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA), which issues information for hazard related events to the Indian ocean and the Caribbean until such systems are in place for those regions. Report highlighted the progress of their efforts.

Today, the elements of such a system are coming together in the Indian Ocean. 25 countries in the Indian ocean region are in a position to receive hazard advisories based on seismic waves information from the PTWC in Hawaii and JMA in Tokyo, through the communication centres established by their collective effort.

On a national level, public awareness and safety broachers, and school curricula and other information materials about tsunami and hazard warning have been designed and distributed to the public. Report confirmed the responsibilities of the DoM and government.