10 years after the tsunami hit Indonesia, flaws persist in warning system
Missing ocean buoys, insufficient sirens to sound alarms among problems cited
The 2004 tsunami that swept away his wife and two of his children came without warning for museum employee Akram bin M. Thaib. A decade later, he says he’d be better prepared if it happens again.
“I will look at the ants,” Akram, 54, said at his home in Banda Aceh, capital of Indonesia’s northern Aceh province. “If ants in the ground start climbing to the roof, it means in three days a flood will come.”
It may not be as crazy as it sounds. Scientists have studied whether the behaviour of ants is an early indicator of earthquakes.
Besides, 10 years after an undersea temblor unleashed waves that killed more than 220,000 across 12 countries, in some places the ants may be the only predictor around.
Flaws in the warning system include missing ocean buoys that detect tsunamis, insufficient sirens to sound alarms, and a lack of education teaching people how to respond. While there are six sirens in Banda Aceh, the rest of the province – spread across 58,380 square kilometres – doesn’t have any.
The entire archipelago nation of Indonesia has 39 tsunami sirens, compared with at least 1,000 needed, according to Sutopo Purwo Nugroho, spokesman for Indonesia’s National Disaster Mitigation Agency.
Other essential hardware is also missing.