The Hindu : Kerala News : `Unusual tidal action' triggers tsunami fears

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Mar 30, 2005

Kerala

Kerala

`Unusual tidal action' triggers tsunami fears

By Our Kerala Bureau

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM, MARCH 29. Fears about the tsunami warning turning into a reality gripped the Kollam coast today as the sea swelled in an `unusual tidal action' at the Tangasserry Breakwater Complex around 2.30 p.m.

Elsewhere along the State's coast, the people who had moved inland last night following the warning of a possible tsunami onslaught in the wake of the an underwater earthquake of the intensity of 8.2 on the Richter scale off the Indonesian coast returned to their houses this morning. In the forenoon , television channels had been telecasting the statement from the authorities withdrawing the tsunami warning.

Reports from Kollam say that fishermen went into a panic in the afternoon, when the sea began to swell and move inland past the Tangasserry Breakwater Complex. They dragged the canoes from the shoreline to a safe distance up the beach.

The men who had returned to Tangasserry after overnight fishing too brought back stories about some `strange behaviour' of the sea. They said they had found the outer sea `heaving in a strange way' as though `churned by some strange activity.' The sea subsided within an hour and the fear vanished from the coast.

Tidal action in Kannur

Reports from Kannur too spoke about similar tidal action along the Thalasserry-Kannur stretch of the coast igniting tsunami fears.

With the memories of the December 26 tsunami fresh in their minds, the people living along the coast had moved inland almost immediately after the alert was sounded by the channels last night. The entire population of the villages of Alapad in Kollam district and Arattupuzha in Alappuzha district, which bore the brunt of the December 26 tsunami onslaught, had moved away from the coast.

The Collectors and the Superintendents of Police of all the coastal districts were alerted. The Chief Minister and his Cabinet colleagues met in the night and put the Government's crisis management machinery on high alert. A team at the State capital monitored through the night for any development in Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand, which would have first received the impact of any tsunami waves triggered by the underwater earthquake. The police and revenue officials were out in strength in most of the coastal villages throughout the night coordinating the evacuation and keeping vigil.

In Arattupuzha village, the panchayat members contacted the nearby police stations and arranged vehicles to shift the people to safe places inland. At Munambam in Ernakulam district, fishermen returning to the coast after overnight fishing reported `unusual movements in the sea.' No fishing craft ventured out into the sea from any of the fishing harbours in the State this morning.

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