Thursday, June 29, 2017

Remember 26 December 2004?

At 00:58:53 UTC or almost 9 am Malaysian time on 26 December 2004 there was a humongous earthquake with a MMS (Moment magnitude scale) of 9.1 to 9.3 off the west coast of Sumatra.


Wikipedia says: It was the 3rd largest earthquake ever recorded on a seismograph and had the longest duration of faulting ever observed, between 8.3 and 10 minutes. It caused the entire planet to vibrate as much as 1 centimetre (0.4 inches) and triggered other earthquakes as far away as Alaska.


The earthquake triggered tsunami along the coasts of the Indian Ocean killing approximately (officially) 250,000 people, but unofficially the death toll could be far far worse as many deaths were either not reported or not even known.

Penang Island and some parts of the Kedah coast were affected, with deaths recorded in the former.


Then (2005) there were numerous hue and cries in Malaysia about the frightening natural disaster. A Lebanese news media reported that some muftis in the Gulf countries claimed the SE Asian Muslims were divinely punished for their sins.

Like most Gulf countries, Midas-rich but King Scrooge Kuwait (an Islamic nation) initially made a paltry donation of US$2 million, considerably far less than the contribution of US$10 million by Michael Schumacher, a Christian individual, before it was shamed by Arab newspapers into increasing its donation, but alas not by much.


Indeed, Arab nations ignored or gave very pathetic amount in aid to their Muslim brethren in devastated Indonesia in shameful comparison to Christian Australia who gave A$1 Billion.

Christian infidels like American Sandra Bullock herself gave US$1 million and, as mentioned above, German Michael Schumacher as an individual donated US$10 million.


By staggering contrast, after Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans those Muslim Arabs gave hundreds and hundreds of millions in American dollars (eg. Kuwait alone gave US$500 million) to the USA. Presumably the natives of New Orleans were less sinful than Sumatran Muslims.

Malaysians learnt what a tsunami was and how devastating it could be for people living along the our nation's coasts.


There arose a fervour of anxiety cum enthusiasm about implementing a tsunami alert system in Malaysia.


It's now 13 years after the horror which wiped out hundreds of thousands of lives in Sumatra, Malaysia, Thailand, Andaman Islands, Sri Lanka, India, etc, and even as far as Somalia.

Any practice drill since then?




7 comments:

  1. Indonesia's tsunami warning system down when quake hit

    - by Arlina Arshad Monday, Mar 21, 2016 THE STRAITS TIMES

    This is in Indonesia!

    What about the 3rd world maintenance bolih of bolihland?

    In fact, there were similar reports about non-functional tsunami warning equipment in M'sia. Can anyone paste the link?

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  2. Our disaster infrastructure in the event of disaster (Disaster Recovery Plan) is well in placed. For now focussing on anti terrorist/IS plan is far more important than tsunami practice drill?

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    Replies
    1. I was not talking about a tsunami drill now, but had any been done since 2005? If yes, how many were done and when?

      Delete
    2. Penang carried out an actual tsunami alert response in April 2012, in response to a Sumatra earthquake.

      Police Patrol cars were dispatched to clear people from popular seaside areas. I know, because I was at Gurney Drive at that moment.
      A limited test was carried out on the automated telephone alert system, but I was told that didn't really work properly.
      If you have an address near the seaside, you should get a phone call alert with a message alerting you to possible tsunami, be ready to evacuate, or to immediately evacuate to a higher area, depending on the status.
      Hopefully, they fixed the flaws found after that.

      It turned out there was no actual tsunami, but it was a useful test of the system.

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    3. Different parts of the government need to focus on different things.
      IS is an intelligence and law enforcement issue.
      Tsunami preparation are largely a science and civil defence issue.

      No Money ?
      Its true Malaysian government is critically short of money today, but what happened to all the American Pies which were siphoned to Jho Low ?
      And the pink diamond for Malaysian Lady 1 ?

      And the IPIC debt which Malaysia settled twice ?
      If the first "debt payment" was all Halal and proper, why did we end up repaying the same debt Again ?

      Even the Makcik who runs my corner Nasi Lemak stall knows how to record properly for the payments on money she owes to her suppliers. She makes sure she repays to the right person, and gets proper receipts.

      What about 1MDB ?

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    4. The Philippines Marawi flashpoint SHOULD see a joined ASEAN military effort to completely wipe out the ISIS insurance there, once for all.

      With the final collapse of that atrocious Islamic caliphate in Mosul, many jihadist zombies would be looking for new bunny hole to vent their virgin dreams.

      The Marawi of Philippines is an idea & possible hive far from the current turmoil in Middle East.

      Besides, there r already a bunch of lawless & blood-thirty jihadist zombies there.

      It's a malignant ISIS cancer cell growing at a fast pace.

      If these jihadist zombies r not been exterminated NOW, there will be NO future peace in SEA le!

      The consequences COULD be far worse than a malfunctioning/non-existent tsunami warning system le!!!

      Delete
  3. https://wtfreport.wordpress.com/2011/10/29/rm29-million-tsunami-warning-system-doesnt-work/

    The sad tale of Malaysia's tsunami warning buoys was laid out in the Auditor-General's 2010 report.
    They cost RM 29 Million and they don't work.

    At least the previous Auditor-Generals still had independence and integrity, and were unafraid to expose government deviations, in a non-political way.

    The latest Najib version seems to have her being the wife of Kepong UMNO division chief as an important qualification.
    We shall see whether she is capable of being independent or just a Najib puppet.

    ReplyDelete