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Residents cut tsunami sirens
06/06/2007 18:46 - (SA)
Jakarta - Angry residents in Indonesia's Aceh province, the area hardest hit by the 2004 tsunami, disconnected part of a new early warning system after a false alarm sent panicky residents to the hills, officials said on Wednesday.
Three tsunami-warning sirens in the provincial capital, Banda Aceh, and the surrounding areas went off accidentally on Monday for about 30 minutes, causing hundreds of residents to flee their homes and run for higher ground.
Many roads in the capital were clogged with people driving inland on motorbikes and cars.
Afterward, residents in Lhoknga district disabled an early warning siren by removing its fuses and keeping them to prevent another false alarm.
"They took away the fuses without telling us because they are still panicked and afraid," said Hervina, an official with the Meteorology and Geophysics Agency in Banda Aceh.
"Partly, we can't blame them or report them to police because they are still panicked with the false alarm that took place on Monday," said Hervina, who like many Indonesians goes by only one name.
On December 26 2004, a magnitude-9 earthquake off Aceh triggered a tsunami that killed 226 000 people in 12 Indian Ocean countries.
The death toll in Aceh, which lies on the northern tip of Sumatra island, was 177 000.
After Monday's false alarm, police used loudspeakers to urge people to return to their homes, saying it was caused by a mechanical problem.
"We are currently looking at the sirens and are trying to fix them," Hervina said.
- Sapa-dpa
- SAPA
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