Phuket Vice Governor Wongsakorn Nunchukan gave the order for local officials to prepare for drill at a meeting yesterday (Sept 2) held at the Baan Bang Wan kindergarten in Kamala.
Phuket Department of Disaster Prevention and Mitigation (DDPM) Chief Sophon Thongsai explained that the national DDPM office in Bangkok had ordered officers at the National Disaster Warning Center to choose places along the six Andaman coast provinces to hold tsunami-evacuation drills in order to test and check the readiness of the disaster-warning system.
As such, tsunami-evacuation drills were held in Ranong, Phang Nga and Krabi on Monday and Tuesday last week (Aug 24-25).
Tsunami-evacuation drills will be conducted in Phuket, Trang and Satun next Tuesday and Wednesday (Sept 8-9), he added.
The Phuket exercise will be held at Rajaprajanugroh 36 School, in Soi Rimhaad, Moo 3, Kamala, and will last three hours, from 9am to 11am, Chief Sophon confirmed.
Officials, local rescue workers and members of other organisations involved in the drill will meet at the school on Sept 8 to prepare and publicize information to local residents, Chief Sophon said.
V/Gov Wongsakorn made it plain that he wanted all local people to know that the sirens sounding at Kamala at 9am next Wednesday (Sept 9) would be just a test – not a genuine tsunami warning.
“I want all officers to publicize this drill to local people in order not to make them panic,” he said.
“I also would like to see local people in the area to join this drill so that they know what to do if a disaster happens, to help prevent them from losing loved ones,” he added.