Perfect storm of factors behind deadly Indonesian quake-tsunami
Officials admit early-warning systems are no longer working
JAKARTA: Inadequate warning systems, a lack of education about what to do when the quake hit and a narrow bay that channeled the tsunami’s destructive force-a perfect storm of factors spawned the deadly disaster in Indonesia. The massive 7.5-magnitude tremor struck Friday and sent monster waves barreling into the island of Sulawesi, leaving at least 844 dead in the seaside city of Palu and surrounding areas.
As victims were buried in a mass grave and rescue teams struggled to reach remote areas, questions mounted about what exactly happened and if more could have been done to save lives. The tragedy has highlighted what critics say is a patchy early-warning system to detect tsunamis in the seismically-active Southeast Asian archipelago. “There was no information about a tsunami recorded by the tide-monitoring station in Palu because it was not working,” Widjo Kongko, a tsunami expert with the Indonesian government’s technology agency, said.
The station keeps a check on changes in tides and should have detected if destructive waves were headed for the city. After the initial quake, Indonesia’s geophysics agency-which monitors seismic activity-did issue a tsunami warning but lifted it soon afterwards. It was only later that images emerged of a surging wall of water charging into the coast, flattening buildings and overturning cars. Tide-monitoring stations and datamodeling are the main tools in Indonesia for predicting if a quake has generated a tsunami.
There was no information about a tsunami
Beset by problems
But even if all the country’s stations are working, experts say the network is limited and in any case gives people little time to flee as they only detect waves once they are close to shore. Efforts to improve systems have been beset by problems, from a failure to properly maintain new equipment to bureaucratic bickering. After a quake-tsunami in 2004 off Sumatra island killed 220,000 across the region, with most victims in Indonesia, 22 early-warning buoys were deployed around the country to detect tsunamis. But officials have admitted that they are no longer working after being vandalized and due to a lack of funds for maintenance.
In another case, a major project with funding from the US National Science Foundation to deploy hightech tsunami sensors in a quake-prone part of western Indonesia has been delayed. Louise Comfort, a natural disaster expert from the University of Pittsburgh who has led the American side of the initiative, said that it had been put on hold after disagreement between government agencies and a delay in getting financing. “It’s so disheartening and it’s so sad because we’ve got the technology, we’ve got the knowledge, we know we can do it,” she said.