Countries work on different plans to escape tsunami<\/p>\n
Bill Tarrant, Reuters\/Walagedo, Sri Lanka<\/p>\n
The next time monster waves tear through this quiet little
\nvillage on Sri Lanka's ruined southern coast, the man who runs
\nthe local cafe is poised to sound the alarm.<\/p>\n
In Indonesia's devastated Aceh province, authorities are
\nplanning "escape hills" or mammoth, manmade mounds where people
\ncan run up to if there is another tsunami.<\/p>\n
And Thailand is building 15-meter tall warning towers along
\nits southern coastline that will broadcast evacuation orders in
\nsix languages.<\/p>\n
There were no early warning systems or evacuation plans when
\none of the strongest earthquakes in recorded history set of a
\ntsunami that killed 228,000 people and left more than a million
\nhomeless in a dozen countries around the Indian Ocean rim on Dec.
\n26.<\/p>\n
Tsunami-affected countries are taking various routes to deal
\nwith the next one which residents, unnerved with every big
\naftershocks, fear can happen at any time.<\/p>\n
While the United Nations is spearheading an effort to set up
\nearly warning centers around the Indian Ocean rim, experts say
\nit's the "last mile" -- when centers cascade the alarm down to
\nremote fishing villages -- that is key to blunting the impact of
\nthe next tsunami.<\/p>\n
Walagedo, a tidy little hamlet about 80 kms south of Colombo,
\nis the first of Sri Lanka's Tsunami Protection Villages.<\/p>\n
Chandrasana de Silva is in charge of sounding the horn, when
\nthe Geological Survey and Mines Bureau calls to warn of an
\napproaching tsunami.<\/p>\n
The horn sits atop a thin pole planted in a boulder on the
\nbeach behind his house and cafe on the main road. A twisted blue
\nwire snakes out from a window by the phone, across the grass and
\npalmettos, through coconut trees and over the beach to the pole.<\/p>\n
De Silva acknowledges this is not an ideal arrangement. For
\none thing, he takes tourists on adventure excursions around Sri
\nLanka and is not home a good deal of time.<\/p>\n
"This is just temporary," he explains. "Next month Colombo
\nwants to connect direct to the siren."<\/p>\n
Walagedo is meant to be the first of many villages with a
\ntsunami protection plan -- robust sirens on the beach, evacuation
\nroute signs posted on utility poles, public awareness campaigns.<\/p>\n
It took the tsunami two hours to reach Sri Lanka's coastline.
\nIndonesia was hit within a half hour.<\/p>\n
Indonesia's reconstruction master plan proposes the
\nconstruction of escape hills, scattered along Aceh's coastline on
\nthe northern tip of Sumatra. Made of concrete and covered with
\ngrass, the hills would be capable of accommodating 1,000 people
\nat the flat top.<\/p>\n
The hills would be situated to allow people to reach them
\nwithin five to 20 minutes. The government is also planning three-
\nstory earthquake resistant "escape buildings".<\/p>\n
"They can choose the escape hill, the escape building or the
\nescape roads," Chairani, head of the provincial public works
\ndepartment in Aceh, said in an interview.<\/p>\n
"The priority is escape roads and then the buildings. The
\nhills need a lot of land and that's expensive. Maybe an NGO (non-
\ngovernmental organization) has a budget for that."<\/p>\n
One aid consultant working in Aceh was skeptical, saying the
\nhills would have to be the size of a city block at the base to
\naccommodate so many people at the top and would be impractical
\nin an urban setting.<\/p>\n
"The construction costs, even by cheap Indonesian standards,
\nwould be huge," the consultant said.<\/p>\n
Thailand which staged the region's maiden evacuation drill on
\nits tourist mecca of Phuket island has moved the fastest.<\/p>\n
By the end of the year, Thailand intends to put buoys on the
\nsea bottom that would transmit data of an approaching tsunami to
\nthe new National Disaster Center, which will send out alerts to
\nmedia, text messages to vast mobile networks and trigger sirens
\non 50 warning towers.<\/p>\n
Foreigners spent US$1.8 billion in Phuket last year and
\nThailand wants to broadcast a message that it is safe to stay on
\nthe tsunami-battered island.<\/p>\n
The March 28 earthquake on Sumatra tested India's
\npreparedness. Central and state governments issued alerts, and
\npeople fled risk areas as soon they saw or heard the first news
\nflashes. The army, navy and air force went on alert.<\/p>\n
But coastal communities along the Indian Ocean rim are often
\npoverty belts with poor access to technology that could miss out
\non warnings, experts say.<\/p>\n
So Sri Lanka is working on a "buffer zone" 100-200 meters from
\nthe sea, where no new building will be allowed, including for
\nthose who used to live by the beach. The decision has upset
\nfishermen and hoteliers alike.<\/p>\n
Indonesia considered its own building exclusion zone along the
\nAceh coastline, but abandoned the idea after public resistance.<\/p>\n
An interim warning system for the Indian Ocean should be in
\nplace by October, mainly by upgrading an existing network of
\ntidal gauges, Patricio Bernal, head of the UN Oceanographic body
\ncharged with that task, told Reuters.<\/p>\n
A more sophisticated system using undersea buoys transmitting
\ntsunami data to national warning systems should be ready before
\nthe end of next year, he said.<\/p>\n
Then it is up to individual governments to plan their own
\nemergency responses.<\/p>\n
"Detecting a tsunami is only part of the problem," Bernal
\nsaid. "The big problem is how to prepare societies and local
\npopulations so they can act appropriately to a warning."<\/p>",
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