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PADANG - Indonesia tested its tsunami warning system for the first time Monday, sounding alarms in a town that sent thousands of residents running through the streets exactly one year after a devastating disaster hit for real. "We knew it was just a drill," said Candra Yohanes, 55, who was among those who fled to higher ground when the sirens rang out in Padang in West Sumatra province, which neighbors the region hardest-hit by last year's tsunami, Aceh.
"Still, when I heard the siren my heart was pounding so hard," she said. "I hope what happened in Aceh is never repeated here." Dummy data from an earthquake sensor on the ocean floor triggered Monday's government-organized exercise. Using the false report, the Meteorology and Geophysics Agency (BMG) in Jakarta sent a warning to Padang's mayor, who ordered the emergency evacuation to start.
Sirens wailed and 2,000 residents -- many of them women, and children dressed in school uniforms -- fled to a predestined evacuation area on a hill. Ambulances and fire trucks followed. One year ago Monday, a magnitude 9 earthquake ruptured the sea floor off Sumatra's northwest tip, sending waves 10 meters high across the Indian Ocean that crashed into the coastlines of one dozen countries.
At least 216,000 people were left dead or missing. Aceh was by far the hardest hit, suffering more than 131,000 deaths. The country, which has been rattled by hundreds of aftershocks since then, is in the initial stages of setting up a tsunami early warning system of buoys, beach sirens and international communication lines. But it could take two years before the system is fully operational.
BMG head Sri Woro Budi Harijono said that by the end of 2007 about 160 seismographs would be installed in ten regional stations across Indonesia. Each station would eventually be able to process earthquake data within five minutes of receiving it, and issue tsunami warnings direct to local communities without having to rely on the central Jakarta office.
In the event of a real tsunami, Sri said her agency also would have sent mobile phone text messages to residents and to authorities in eight Asian nations. Sending warnings by SMS was affordable, but would not reach some remote regions with no mobile phone services. "We plan to place sirens at towers along the coastal areas and local police offices," Harijono said.
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