The Padang city government, Padang Panjang Geophysics Station, and relevant stakeholders have formed a tsunami ready community as part of efforts to support the public’s preparedness for disasters.
Secretary of the Padang city government, Andree Algamar, said on Saturday that he warmly welcomed the creation of the tsunami ready community.
“This is a collective effort to make the residents of Padang city smart to face earthquake and tsunami disasters. The residents are particularly those domiciled in coastal areas such as Purus and Lolong Belanti,” he added.
The Padang city government and relevant stakeholders have so far made earthquake and tsunami risk mitigation efforts in the city, he noted.
“The efforts include making evacuation routes, designating tsunami safe zones, and providing shelters and so on,” he said.
In addition, the city government has also launched Padang as a disaster smart city through information dissemination and simulation, with the aim of making sub-districts, urban villages, schools, families, and public places disaster-resilient.
“This aligns with tsunami ready community, which was formed and inaugurated during the commemoration of the September 30 earthquake,” he said.
Meanwhile, chief of the Padang Panjang Geophysics Station, Suaidi Ahad, said the tsunami ready community is a public capacity-building program for facing tsunami threats based on 12 indicators set by the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission (IOC) of UNESCO.
The 12 indicators have been mapped and designed, such as tsunami dangerous zones, an estimate of at-risk people in tsunami dangerous zones, economic sources, infrastructures and politics, and an easily understood tsunami evacuation map.
The other indicators are the availability of sufficient and reliable facilities to receive tsunami early warning from the authorized agency for 24 hours, and the availability of sufficient and reliable facilities to disseminate tsunami early warning for 24 hours to the public on time.
Source: Antara News