France sets up quake center

Syofiardi Bachyul Jb, The Jakarta Post, Padang

The French government plans to provide further aid in the form of equipment and technical expertise to establish an earthquake and tsunami crisis center in Padang, West Sumatra, expected to be launched in May.

Coordinator of the West Sumatra Natural Disaster Mitigation Agency's coordinating unit (Satkorlak), Armen Rauf, said in Padang on Friday that the crisis center's task was to anticipate the possible risks that might occur if an earthquake and tsunami were to hit the west coast of the province originating from the subduction zone in the Mentawai Islands.

"The crisis center that will be operated by the West Sumatra Satkorlak, will later become the center for information, observation and control," said Armen.

Armen explained that the French government would not provide money directly, but technical facilities in the form of communications equipment, such as an Early Warning System, database resources, a call center, as well as the training of personnel and operational funds for two years.

He could not yet determine the amount of assistance but said, "It could reach billions of rupiah. We only need to provide the place for the crisis center. They will provide the equipment and operational funds for the first two years," said Armen.

Talks between the French and Indonesian governments have entered the final phase. There will be a meeting soon between the French ambassador and the West Sumatra governor to completely finalize it.

Meanwhile, a staffer at the Padangpanjang Meteorology and Geophysical Agency (BMG), Bayu Pranata, who is also a member of the Satkorlak said that the crisis center would prioritize earthquake and tsunami warnings, and would be aimed at minimizing the number of victims in the event of another large tsunami.

"The foremost thing to be set up is the call center and a hotline connecting the BMG and the Satkorlak," he said.

The call center go into action in case of a disaster, said Armen, "it will be used for informing the public of the dangers of an earthquake or tsunami along the western coast of Sumatra".

The subduction zone -- the section where an oceanic plate descends below a continental plate -- along the west coast of Sumatra, has the potential to trigger another huge quake and tsunami.

A team consisting of experts from the National Institute of Sciences (LIPI) and the California Technical Institute (Caltech) has recorded that six segments in the subduction zone along Sumatra have the possibility to create huge quakes. They are in the Aceh-Andaman region, Simeuleu, Nias, the Batu Islands, Siberut, Sipora-Pagai and Bengkulu.

Only two of the six segments, Siberut and Sipora-Pagai, have not had substantial activity in recent years, however, that area experienced a series of huge quakes over 150 years ago, according to scientists.

Based on the report from the team, a quake once occurred in the Siberut segment in the 17th century and the Sipora-Pagai in 1797 and 1833 with a magnitude of an estimated 9.0 on a modern day Richter.

Padang, a densely populated city on the coast of western Sumatra, seems particularly vulnerable to a devastating quake or tsunami.