Asia to install tsunami alert

Asia to install tsunami alert

THAILAND: Disaster early warning towers will be in place
across southeast Asia in time for the first anniversary of the
Dec. 26 Indian Ocean tsunami that killed more than 200,000
people, the United Nations said on Friday.

The UN Development Program said it would build five equipment-
packed monitoring towers off the coasts of Thailand, Myanmar,
Vietnam and the Philippines with the help of the Asian Disaster
Preparedness Center (ADPC).

The US$500,000 project should minimize the risk of false
alarms like one issued by Thailand last week following an
earthquake underneath the Indian Ocean, Suvit Yodmani, head of
the non-governmental ADPC, said.

"If you have too many of these false alarms, then people are
going to be quite nonchalant if it happens to be the real thing,"
he said.

Other countries in the region, including Australia, have
already installed the Hawaiian-made monitoring systems that send
back information to a centralized database known as the Global
Sea Level Observing System. The new towers in Southeast Asia will
be connected to that system. -- Reuters