The announcement came through a report posted online by Radio Thailand Phuket at 9:44pm last night.
Of note, the Phuket office of the Public Relations Department (PR Phuket) has yet to issue any notices explaining the exercise.
According to the report, Mr Udomporn explained that the exercise today will be held in two parts.
The first part will be officers at District Incident Command Centres and the Phuket Incident Command Centre utilising the training plan as devised by and practiced by what Mr Udomporn called “national crisis management C-MEX 22”.
The second part of the exercise will be the National Disaster Warning Centre activating the alarm.
The report did not clarify what times the tsunami-warning towers will sound the alarm, despite Mr Udomporn explaining on Monday that all 19 warning towers on the island were to sound the alarm as part of the exercise.
The report posted last night re-confirmed that an evacuation drill will be held in Karon this afternoon.
The report also announced, but for the first time, that an evacuation drill will also be held in Sakhu, just south of Phuket International Airport.
The evacuation drill will simulate the alarm and evacuation response to an underwater earthquake of 7.8 Magnitude triggering a tsunami, Mr Udomporn repeated.
The tsunami warning towers will sound two alerts: the first to warn of an inbound tsunami; the second to instruct people to evacuate to safe zones.
The warnings will be announced in five languages: Thai, English, Japanese, Chinese and Russian.
The report posted last night repeated that “all 19 warning towers, covering all three districts” will sound the two alerts.
After the exercise, officials will revise how effective the evacuation plan is and make any necessary changes, Mr Udomporn said, according to the report.
Karon Municipality yesterday afternoon broke the silence on when and where the evacuation drills were to take place.
Starting at 2pm, the evacuation drill will begin at Karon Circle, from where participants will make their way to the tsunami safety zone at Wat Suwankhirikhet (Wat Karon), just over 400 metres inland.
That news came through a post shared on the official Facebook page of Phuket Governor Narong Woonciew, not through any other official Phuket channels.
Phuket City Municipality later yesterday afternoon also made its announcement that it will be conducting its tsunami-evacuation drill at 2pm today (July 20)
The municipality invited people in seven areas in Phuket Town that have been identified as risk zones to join the evacuation exercise.
The seven identified risk areas were given as: Saphan Hin Public Park; Saen Suy Community; Soi Ko Phai Community; Ton Pho Community; 40 Hong (“40 rooms”) Community; Phuket Vocational College; and Baan Bang Neow Municipal School.
“However, if you hear the alarm during this time, please don’t panic!!! Because it’s just a planned training session,” Phuket City Municipality advised.
The announcement was made so that people would be aware of the roads used as an evacuation route away from Saphan Hin, the notice explained
“There may be a loud siren in the area. We apologise for any inconvenience during this time,” the municipality said.
Meanwhile, Sakhu Tambon Administration Organisation (OrBorTor) at 9:35am this morning finally issued its notice of the tsunami-evacuation drill to be held at Nai Yang Beach.
Oddly, Sakhu OrBorTor announced that its exercise will begin at 1pm.
“Those who are interested in participating in the training can gather together at Sirinath National Park In front of Sakhu Police Station,” Sakhu OrBorTor announced.
People with queries were advised to call the DDPM office at Sakhu OrBorTor at 076-328146 ext. 12.
Kurt | 20 July 2022 - 14:55:34