Tsunami drill today

Dharma SRI ABEYRATNE

A tsunami preparedness rehearsal will be held today in 10 districts at 3.00 p.m., Disaster Management Centre Director General Major General Gamini Hettiarachchi said.

Tsunami preparedness rehearsals are held from time to time in various places along the coastal belt so as to create an awareness among the public regarding natural disasters.

Under this tsunami preparedness exercise one village each has been selected from 10 districts.

The villages have been selected from Gampaha, Batticaloa, Trincomalee, Puttalam, Galle, Kalutara, Matara, Ampara, Hambantota and Colombo districts. People will be evacuated from the selected 10 villages to safe places identified earlier. It has been scheduled to evacuate around 300 to 400 people from each village. At the Tsunami preparedness rehearsal, Tsunami warning will be issued by the Disaster Management Centre using communication methods such as telephone, fax, e-mails, SMS and other ways. Villagers will then be notified by officers of the Divisional Secretariat offices. Seven tsunami warning towers will be used to issue tsunami warning signal.

The evacuation process will then be carried out via pre-identified routes and life saving process will take place.

The public in the area where tsunami trials will take place, need not panic if they hear a 'tsunami warning' as this is only a tsunami preparedness rehearsal, the Disaster Management Centre pointed out.