The resident sent a complaint via the local Line group “Alert news Phuket Line Group” saying that there was no siren sound during the second “bi-monthly” check conducted by the DDPM at 11am yesterday morning.
Deputy Chief Executive of the Kamala Tambon Administration Organisation (OrBorTor) Nopporn Karuna and Mr Prapan both argued that the Kamala tower is in fact working.
“We received reports from a resident yesterday evening (Jan 15) that there was no siren sound when checking the tsunami warning tower,” said Mr Nopporn.
“So Kamala OrBorTor filed a report to the DDPM region 18 yesterday. But we have received confirmation back from DDPM staff, who were conducting the check, that the siren did work,” said Mr Nopporn.
Mr Prapan said, “DDPM staff have confirmed that the tsunami warning siren in Kamala is working, as are all 19 tsunami warning towers in Phuket. They are working 100%.
“They were all fixed by the end of November 2017. We now conduct two checks per month, on the 1st and 15th, to ensure they are working,” he added.
It was revealed on July 29 last year by DDPM Deputy Director-General Kobchai Boonyaorana that 11 of the 19 towers in Phuket were “out of order”.
“Out of the eight siren towers in Phang Nga, five are out of order. But all four broadcast towers are working,” Mr Kobchai told The Bangkok Post.
“The department aims to fix all of the equipment in the six Andaman coastal provinces by the end of October,” he added. (See story here.)
Former DDPM-Phuket Chief Chatchawan Betjasiriwong then told The Phuket News on Aug 2, “We are sending our workers to fix 11 towers, which are in process now. According to our schedule, all repairs will be finished this month.” (See story here.)