Govt. investigates broken tsunami sirens

By Talaia Mika 25 July 2020, 10:00AM

The Chairman of the National Emergency Operations Centre (N.E.O.C), Ulu Bismarck Crawley, said they are finding out what has happened to the tsunami sirens on the south coast of Uplolu.

Residents on the south coast of the island, including Amaile villagers, says the sirens have not been working for a long time which worries them. The south coast of Upolu was devastated by a deadly tsunami in 2009, killing a 147 people.

But Ulu assured that the concerns have been taken on board.

“We are looking into it," he said.

"Usually whenever the cyclone season begins, we always have to monitor and observe what to fix because we have a maintenance plan of these things so for sure we’ll check on them and fix. We are working on these ones because we maintain that for  communication in case if a natural disaster.”

Amaile village mayor, Tupuivao Posini, claims that they have had to run tsunami drills without the siren.

But Ulu said they were not aware about this. He also disputed reports that there were no sirens in Savai'i.

“There are some (sirens) in Savai’i,” he said.

“I think we have good network and I cannot confirm how many altogether but there are (sirens) in Savai’i and Upolu.”

A source said over 20 tsunami sirens have been installed across Upolu and none in Savai’i.

The Samoa Observer understands two of the sirens were removed from where they were 18 months ago at Salepaga and Matatufu.



By Talaia Mika 25 July 2020, 10:00AM

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