International News

JAKARTA, (APP/AFP): A series of early-warning buoys
deployed after a 2004 tsunami devastated parts of Indonesia’s western Sumatra island were not working when a huge quake rocked the same area
on Wednesday, an official said.
The 7.8 magnitude, shallow undersea quake hit late Wednesday off
Sumatra, sending panicked residents fleeing for the hills and briefly triggering a tsunami alert.
But a tsunami was not generated and there have been no reports of
casualties or major damage, with life largely returning to normal in affected areas on Thursday.
However, the national disaster agency said the process of confirming
that a tsunami had not occurred was hindered because none of the country’s 22 early-warning buoys were working.
The early part of the warning process ran smoothly, with a tsunami
alert quickly sent out to communities across Sumatra, which led to sirens sounding and people heading to higher ground.
But without the working buoys, which can detect changes in water
movement and relay the data back to officials, it took authorities around three hours to confirm that destructive waves had not been generated and
to call off the alert.
“The tsunami buoys have been damaged by vandalism, and a there is a
lack of funds for maintenance,” disaster agency spokesman Sutopo Purwo Nugroho told reporters.
“This situation makes it difficult to confirm whether a tsunami has
occurred or not,” he added.
The buoys were part of a sophisticated, multi-million-dollar warning
system, constructed with help of foreign donors following the 2004 tsunami that occurred when a magnitude 9.1 earthquake struck off Sumatra.
It sent a huge tsunami barrelling into Aceh province, on Sumatra’s
northern tip, and to countries around the Indian Ocean, leaving around 220,000 people dead.
A series of strong aftershocks continued to rock Sumatra Thursday
but the Meteorology, Climate and Geophysics Agency, which monitors earthquakes, urged people to remain calm.
“Based on data from these aftershocks we do not believe there will
be an earthquake of greater strength,” the agency said in a statement.
Calm had returned to the city of Padang in western Sumatra, where
the quake had been felt strongly.
A team of military personnel and search and rescue officials were
also dispatched Thursday to the remote Mentawai Islands, the closest land
to the epicentre, to check on communities that had not been contacted
since the quake.