Early warning system needs attention to detail
A report in The Australian this morning says that Australia’s tsunami early warning system is not yet able to provide details about the height or speed of waves expected, and will be reviewed after yesterday’s earthquake and tsunami in Solomon Islands.
Federal Parliamentary Secretary for Industry, Tourism and Resources Bob Baldwin said the four-year rollout of the early warning system was on schedule but it would not be fully operational until 2009, adding, “The current system that Australia has in place is not completed in its rollout – it will be completed in 2009”.
“What we’ll have is more accurate information – wave heights, speed of waves – to allow better planning and modelling to occur.”
The $68.9 million scheme was announced in 2005 following the huge tsunami in the Indian Ocean on Boxing Day 2004.
Mr Baldwin said he was happy a warning about a potential tsunami hitting Australia had been issued within 40 minutes of the earthquake occurring, adding, “We were very lucky, but remember there’s no government in the world that can control the size of a wave or control the size of an earthquake.”
Yesterday’s tsunami warning was issued for the northern coast of Australia at 7.20am (AEST), shortly after the 8.1 earthquake occurred at 6.40am (AEST), with the tsunami advisory extended to cover eastern Tasmania at 10.55am (AEST).
Mr Baldwin said the review of the system was routine, adding, “We will always after an incident like this conduct a review – in fact, I’ve already commenced that today in discussions with the head of the department, asking him what could be done better and what should be done better”, and “But I am reasonably satisfied that the actions taken today were the correct actions.”
Queensland Premier Peter Beattie said the system needed to provide more details, saying, “This was frightening in the sense that we were warned there could have been a tsunami, we were trying to work out the magnitude of it and we were shooting blind”.
Director of the Australian Seismological Centre Kevin McCue said it was likely another earthquake could hit the region within days, with the region having a history of two earthquakes occurring within hours or days of one another.
University of Wollongong tsunami expert Ted Bryant said fleeing to higher ground was an appropriate response, with Professor Bryant saying he believed Australian authorities responded well to the tsunami alert.
Report by The Mole from The Australian
John Alwyn-Jones
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