COAST EVACUATED: Tsunami fright in South

Published on July 25, 2005

Thousands flee in Phuket, Krabi after new Indian Ocean earthquake

Tourists and locals in six southern provinces rushed inland last night, causing chaos and traffic jams on coastal roads after a tsunami warning was issued for the area.

The National Disaster Warning Centre issued the alert after an earthquake measuring 7.3 on the Richter scale struck near India’s Andaman and Nicobar islands in the Indian Ocean, about 664 kilometres from Phuket.

Tourists on Krabi’s Phi Phi island also moved to higher ground after the centre’s director, Plodprasop Suraswadi, said in two broadcasts shortly before midnight that a tsunami might strike Phuket, Phang Nga, Krabi, Satun, Ranong and Trang.

All six provinces were affected by the December 26 tsunami.

Plodprasop said local authorities should inform residents about the possibility of a tsunami in the areas and prepare to evacuate them.

The centre expected the first of the giant waves to hit Phuket’s Karon beach at 0.12am. In a third emergency broadcast, Plodprasop repeated his warning even though it was 15 minutes after midnight.

The governors of Phuket, Phang Nga, Krabi ordered the evacuation of residents in coastal areas following the warning.

Police in Port Blair, the capital of the Andaman and Nicobar islands, said the earthquake caused residents to run from their homes, but there were no early reports of casualties or damage.

“The quake was felt in all the islands of the Andaman and Nicobar chain,” a police official told Reuters, referring to the more than 550 islands in the remote Indian Ocean archipelago that was devastated by last year’s tsunami.

In Port Blair, hundreds of people ran out of their homes in panic and rushed to open places.

The Andaman and Nicobar islands are situated on an undersea faultline that continues to Indonesia.
hope they are not going to cry wolf to often.

linky