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Tsunami alert a flop
19/01/2007 13:42 - (SA)
Kuala Lumpur - Malaysian authorities mistakenly issued a tsunami warning on Friday, and their embarrassment only deepened when beachgoers failed to receive it.
"It's a technical glitch. The system broke down and it
issued an old warning to everyone including the media," said
the science minister's press secretary, Ainon Mohd.
"We are asking the press to ignore the warning," she said.
But one local media group had already issued the warning
twice via its nationwide text-message service. The warning came
from the meteorological department, part of the science
ministry.
But beachgoers on the resort island of Penang, hit by the
devastating Asian tsunami in 2004, were blissfully unaware.
"We did not get any reports of a tsunami here. Our guests
are not disturbed, they are enjoying themselves," said an
executive at the Parkroyal hotel on Penang's famed Batu
Ferringhi coast.
Friday's warning said a strong earthquake in northern
Sumatra could cause a tsunami in the northern states of Kedah,
Perlis and Penang and warned people to stay off the beach.
The government set up its own tsunami alert system after
the Asian tsunami on December 26, 2004, which killed more than
230 000 people in a dozen countries, including Malaysia.
A Pacific-wide tsunami drill held last May found glitches
in the regional alert network, including a faulty fax machine
in Malaysia.
- Reuters
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