As from today Arugambay has lost its connection to the reliable Thai Government Early Warning system.
The locally monitored, innovative and highly efficient Early Warning System has finally run out of money.
The only sponsor, the SVH has been unable to attract any financial help and had to pull the plug on the population.
With good reason, people in the remote Bay learned to rely on homegrown systems and do not trust outside help or Colombo Government warnings.
For example, should a sea quake happen 50 miles offshore, the warning period is a mere 5 Minutes. AbaY’s systems would have detected that, and given quick, local response by activating high sirens, potentially saving hundreds of lives.
The attached SMS system also is no longer in operation; subscribers have been notified.
Should you wish to find out more, and the history of our system, there is ample coverage on this site: simply use the search facility and most articles should come up.
Arugam.info regrets that with all the collected Millions a few hundred $$ could not be found to protect residents and visitors from forthcoming events.
And: Make no mistake: They will happen!
So much for supporting a ‘true sustainable’ and worthwhile Community ‘Project’.
For the sake of all the ‘helpful’ NGO - “ENJOYS” we hope that nothing drastic happens soon!
I am shocked and disappointed.
Donations have gone where?
Why had this to happen?
Sudu
Is it right to say that the overall situation is now even worse than after the natural disaster of December, 2004?
On the island we now see a purely man made problem and witness a huge failure by the organizations and foreign embassies who should control what is happening with donor’s cash.
Lucky to hear the Bay itself is calm and quiet!
Below is an example of a subscription-only Early Warning, Commercial Organization.
Received today.
AbHa and the SVH has been questioned by a number of people about funding requests of our highly efficient service, now sadly disconnected.
Why?
Because we never, ever managed to attract the very modest funds to maintain the service (All we got, from friends was the cash to buy two new batteries.
Companies, such as the Institute below, charge 2,000$/per year for pretty inferior services!
Quote:
“On September 2nd, 2007, at 12:05 PM local time (01:05 AM UTC) an earthquake occurred south of the Santa Cruz Islands (Solomon Islands) with a magnitude Mw 6.9 (USGS)/7.3 (Japan Meteorological Agency) in a depth of about 35 kilometres. Because of the earthquake magnitude and the relatively shallow location of the epicentre, there was a concrete danger of a destructive local tsunami. Therefore, the subscribers of the Tsunami Alarm System were informed of the event immediately after the earthquake. After about two hours, measurements in Vanuatu confirmed that at least a small tsunami had been generated. Because of this, the alarm state had to be maintained. At 07:30 AM UTC, it became clear that a destructive tsunami was no longer expected. It was then possible to send an All-Clear Signal to the subscribers of the Tsunami Alarm System.
Geological background: The geological fault system on which this earthquake occurred is part of the circumpacific “Ring of Fire”. In the region of the Solomon Islands, the Indo-Australian plate subducts under the Pacific Plate, being the cause of a high number of strong earthquakes. Because of the regional geological setting, a large number of these earthquakes occur close to the earth surface combined with strong vertical movements. According to preliminary calculations, this was also the case with yesterday’s earthquake. These characteristics facilitate the formation of tsunamis. In the last 100 years, 30 tsunamis where reported in this region, the last one on April 2nd 2007. In this tsunami event, more than 50 people lost their lives and over 2000 homes were destroyed.
Find more information at www.tsunami-institute.com
Best Regards
Your Tsunami Institute Team
Sources:
Tsunami Institute Tuebingen, Germany
United States Geological Service (2007): Earthquake Summary.
02.09.2007