Misleading alert causes panic

Shirley Wijesinghe and Nimal Wijesinghe, Anuradhapura Additional District Group Corr.

*People had not identified the correct signal - DMC

*‘Consult NARA, GSMB before evacuating public’

The tsunami alert in the early hours of Sunday was to warn the people of a possible tsunami. Misreading the warning as a tsunami was on the way, people had started fleeing in panic. There also seem to have been lack of coordination among various institutions that were monitoring the seismic activities.

An official of the Disaster Management Centre (DMC) told the Daily News that the DMC had released tsunami warning only to alert the people.

“The people had mistaken the tsunami alert for preparedness. The people had not identified the correct signal and began fleeing,” he said

Evacuation of people from possible tsunami affected areas should be done after consulting the Geological Survey and Mines Bureau (GSMB) and National Aquatic Resources Agency (NARA).

Such a coordination will be useful to minimize inconvenience and avoid unnecessary panic by the people during the early tsunami preparedness period, GSMB Chairman Dr. N.P. Wijayananda told the Daily News yesterday.

“No communication had been made with NARA or GSMB before releasing alert warnings or evacuation warnings to the people of the coastal areas via early warning towers throughout the country,” Dr. Wijayananda added.

He said no sudden decisions should be taken in releasing evacuation signals to the public without a proper exchange of ideas about the real situation. It inconveniences people living near the sea coastal belt creating unnecessary panic, Dr. Wijayananda said. The DMC had released tsunami warnings of a strong earthquake with a magnitude 7.5 in the Indian ocean off Nicobar Islands at about 1.05 am Sunday.