China holds drill to test tsunami defense system
0 Comment(s)
Print
E-mail
Xinhua, November 10, 2011
China's State Oceanic Administration (SOA) on Thursday held a tsunami-warning drill for testing the country's tsunami defense system.
The drill was an integral part of the pan-Pacific exercise -- code-named "Exercise Pacific Wave 11" -- initiated by the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission (IOC), UNESCO, according to an unnamed official with the SOA.
At about 8:26 a.m., a mock 9.0-magnitude earthquake hit near the Manila Trench, an ocean trench in the South China Sea, west of the Philippines.
At 8:30 a.m., China's National Marine Environmental Forecasting Center sounded the earthquake alarm. The quake then aroused a massive tsunami approaching China's coastal regions, including Guangdong, Guangxi and Fujian.
For the first time, the center also conducted a damage assessment and reminded local governments about emergency evacuations of affected people.
During the drill, 300 villagers and students were evacuated to safe places in what was expected to be the worst-hit city, Huizhou, Guangdong Province, in less than one hour.
China participated in similar drills organized by the IOC in 2006 and 2008, along with countries and regions across the Pacific Rim.
Unlike the drills in 2006 and 2008, Thursday's drill focused on a local or regional tsunami, according to the official.
The tsunami's origin was quite close to the coast and the tsunami wave was expected to make landfall between less than one hour to several hours, posing greater difficulties and necessitating higher standards for the nation's tsunami resistance system, the official said.
Go to Forum >>0 Comment(s)