Complacency taking over as memories of tsunami fade
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Ten years after the deadliest tsunami wrought destruction across the Indian Ocean, creeping complacency is undermining a hi-tech warning system designed to prevent another disaster of such shocking magnitude.
In the morning of December 26, 2004, a 9.3-magnitude earthquake off Indonesia’s western coast generated a series of massive waves that killed more than 220,000 people across 14 countries. There were no warning systems in place and not enough time for many people to find higher ground as the towering waves hit coastal areas.
Experts warn that the memory of that day is fading, taking with it the appetite for disaster preparedness.
“When you forget, you don’t prepare,” said Margareta Wahlstroem, head of the UN Office for Disaster Risk Reduction, who played a leading role in organising the UN response and recovery efforts a decade ago.
“Disaster amnesia” threatens to lower defences, she said.
It took around 20 minutes after the quake for the first waves – some more than 35 metres high – to hit the coast of Aceh, where the vast majority of Indonesia’s 170,000 victims perished.
But it was about two hours later that the tsunami cut into Thailand as well as India and Sri Lanka.
To prevent avoidable losses again, the Indian Ocean Tsunami Warning System – spanning the ocean and monitored by hubs in Indonesia, Australia and India – began operations in 2011.
This network of tidal gauges, deep ocean buoys and seismic monitors is used to warn other countries in the region of impending tsunamis.
Twenty-four countries around the Indian Ocean have also set up their own national warning centres.
Thailand runs a 24-hour monitoring hub linked by satellite to 129 warning towers in the six tsunami-hit provinces alone.
A giant wave would trigger sirens and announcements in several languages through the towers, and send alerts via SMS to a network of officials in order to begin evacuations.
But on Patong beach, in the tourist haven of Phuket, the paint is peeling off the orange warning tower that looms over sunbathing holidaymakers.
And on Khao Lak, a nearby coastal resort area flattened by the tsunami, the signs urging people to run to higher ground have faded.
Yet population density has continued to rise along coastal areas as developers build in lucrative but high-risk shorefront areas.
Japan has invested in some of the best warning systems and tsunami awareness drives, which were tested in 2011 when an earthquake triggered a tsunami that killed more than 18,000.
The new Indian Ocean system was touted as a success two years ago when countries at risk were alerted of a potential tsunami within 12 minutes of a giant quake off Sumatra.
There was no tsunami but text alerts, sirens and evacuation drills in Aceh and Thailand fell into place.
But Mathias Mann, laying flowers in memory of a German colleague at a cemetery in Phang Nga, said remembrance was vital.
“I think it’s very important to remember what happened – for safety reasons.” he said.
