Sri Lanka on tsunami alert after Indonesia quake (Updated)
Repost This Article12 Sep 2007 12:31:03 GMT
Source: Reuters
COLOMBO, Sept 12 (Reuters) – Sri Lanka issued a tsunami alert on Wednesday for its north, south and eastern districts following a major earthquake in Indonesia, the National Disaster Management Centre said.
“We have issued a warning for the south, north and east after the quake,” Keerthi Ekanayake, an official at the centre told Reuters. Sri Lanka was battered by the 2004 tsunami that hit the Indian Ocean rim.
- Reuters story ends -
Update #1 (7.00pm): Read the alerts issued on JNW and also visit their site for updates.
Update #2 (7.15pm): Reuters news alert SMS thru Dialog says “Small tsunami hit Indonesia’s Padang, Sri Lanka expects small tsunami by 7.30 – Disaster Management Centre”
Update #3: (7.34pm): Reuters news alert SMS thru Dialog says “Disaster management center lifts tsunami warning, says no effect; US Geological Survey increase earthquake magnitude to 8.2″ Also see Reuters web update here.
It will be interesting to find out if the Disaster management centre really did lift the tsunami warning at 7.34 as this reuters alert says. From what I know Keerthi Ekenayake did not say the warning was lifted until sometime after 8.30pm.
With no large waves hitting Indonesia, Thailand, Malaysia, chances of there being a tsunami were getting slim, but if the Disaster Management Centre didn’t lift the warning at that time, for reasons best known to them, then its interesting how that message said they did.
Also the earthquake happened at 16.40. Media alerts went out after 17.20. That doesn’t seem like a very good response time.