“Before the end of this month, officials in all three districts will sign a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with beachfront hotels of four storeys or higher to use as emergency evacuation areas for tourists and residents in case of tsunami.” Governor Chamroen said on Thursday (Mar 3).
“We must be ready to handle natural disasters such as earthquakes and tsunamis at all times, not just when they happen,” Gov Chamroen said.
“The recent quake near Indonesia was about 1,463 kilometres from Phuket, which puts us at risk for any possible tsunami, so I want all our emergency stations to be on alert and examine their emergency equipment, especially the emergency warning system,” he added.
Governor Chamroen also called for a performance review of the internal communications system among disaster officials in Phuket.
“The system in Phuket still has problems. It suffers lost signals and communications speeds, and the announcement of the emergency advisory was slow,” he said.
“If this problem is not fixed, there will be a great loss of life and property if a tsunami strikes,” he added.