A report by state news agency NBT posted yesterday (June 13) said that the DDPM launched the operation to recover the buoy, Station 23461, installed in the Andaman Sea approximately 340km from Phuket, after it stopped transmitting data last Thursday (June 9).
However, according to the National Data Buoy Center website operated by the US Government’s National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), the buoy’s last transmission was at 4pm Tuesday last week (June 7).
In defending its action to ensure Thailand’s two tsunami buoys remained operational, the DDPM in late May explained that the buoy was still at its installed location. The problem was with the buoy’s data transmissions not being processed by NOAA servers, the DDPM said.
However, that may no longer be the case, following the state news report that an operation has begun to recover the buoy.
The other buoy that the DDPM operates as part of a multinational tsunami-warning array set up in the Indian Ocean has been recovered, the NBT report said, citing DDPM officials.
The buoy stopped transmitting data in October last year, the DDPM has previously reported. However the agency decided to wait until the scheduled mission to replace or repair the buoy every two years was dispatched to take any action in recovering it.
“The DDPM said both buoys will be replaced with newer ones, with installation to take place in November amid more favorable weather conditions,” the NBT report said.
Of note, the DDPM, and its National Disaster Warning Center, both have yet to directly confirm the current status of the two tsunami-warning buoys. Only distanced reports by state news agencies have reported both buoys being inoperable.
However, the DDPM has assured that Thailand was still protected by a tsunami-warning system as the two buoys were only part of the Indian Ocean tsunami-alert network, the NBT report noted.
“The DDPM is also strictly following all Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) for tsunami warnings to ensure effective and immediate action when necessary,” the report concluded.