Editorial: To prevent is better than mending - translated
and summarized from Matichon, July 27, 2005
After practicing tsunami evacuations many times in
the six Andaman provinces, it went into actual practice
late on the night of July 24. Mr. Plodprasob Surasawadee,
director of the National Warning Disaster, specified
there was an earthquake in the Nicobar Islands and
asked people to move to safe places, but there was
no tsunami.
The warning to people this time is regarded as effective
because it is fast and serious at about the time of
nearly midnight when people slept and could panic.
This warning may upset both Thais and foreigners,
but it is common and it is not correct to blame the
authorities who make the warning. It is regarded as
lucky to people that still survive because if the
tsunami came, no one would have complained.
It is known that it is still difficult to make an
advance forecast for tsunami warnings from earthquake.
Anyway, the geology scientist [Mr. Plodprasob] did
the good job. Not only Thailand, but also CNN reported
the news around the world.
No carelessness calls to mind that humans must behave
carefully. People sometimes do not know about natural
disasters and when info exists, although well prepared,
we still not heed the danger. So we should have optimism
about earthquake warning in Nicobar and think it is
a test for all authorities, social organizations,
local administrative organizations, the mass media
and people in six Andaman provinces. This should be
an evaluation of weak points or deficiencies. At the
same time, we need to improve the instruments to be
accurate in early warning including coordinating disaster
warning organizations with other countries, otherwise
what they drills or actual warnings might not be as
successful as it should be.
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