The news comes after DDPM Deputy Director-General Kobchai Boonyaorana last Saturday (July 29) revealed that of the 19 “facilities” in Phuket, 11 are “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. (See story here.)
“The department aims to fix all of the equipment in the six Andaman coastal provinces by the end of October,” he added.
DDPM-Phuket Chief Chatchawan Betjasiriwong he told The Phuket News yesterday (Aug 2), “We are sending our workers to fix 11 towers, which are in process now. According to our schedule, all repairs will be finish in this month.”
Chief Chatchawan pointed out that the tsunami-warning towers were not the only way of warning people of impending disaster.
“We also use government warning systems, which is to announce alerts through radio, television and local officers such as village headmen. If the warning towers are not working, there are several ways to warn people,” he said.
Chief Chatchawan also confirmed that one of the two tsunami-warning buoys anchored up to 1,000 kilometres off Phuket’s west coast, and which serve as critical components in Thailand’s tsunami-warning system, was operational.
“We have just completed an annual check on one buoy, which is still working,’ he said.
“We are in the middle of conducting a check on the other buoy now, which has ceased functioning. We expect it to be fully operational again by October,” Chatchawan said.
“Do not worry about the buoy that is not working now because it is part of a much larger system of other warning buoys that work together to detect tsunamis, so one buoy not working has very little effect on the whole tsunami-detection system,” the DDPM-Phuket Chief explained.
Mr Chatchawan also called on people not to be overly concerned about the tsunami-waning towers that are not working.
“The towers are not the only way to warn people. There are several ways to warn people, such as through radio, television, local officers or village headmen. Trust the DDPM-Phuket,” he said.
– Prawarit Musika