Met chief becomes Thailand's tsunami fall guy

Thailand’s meteorological chief was sacked today for failing to issue a warning as the tsunami roared toward the country’s southern resort coast.

Suparerk Thantiratanawong, director general of the Meteorological Department, was removed from his post for failing to act, said Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra.

“If he warned, the death toll would definitely have been minimised,” he added.

Thaksin has appointed Smith Thammasaroj, a retired chief of the department, to head a new committee to set up a national tsunami warning system. He will also coordinate with other Asian countries.

Smith has said that when he was head of the department seven years ago he tried to issue tsunami warnings after regional earthquakes, but was ignored by government officials.

“Nobody listened to me. I was blamed as a black sheep, a liar,” he said.

He said the staff at the Meteorological Department working on Boxing Day knew what was coming, but failed to act because of being ignored earlier.

“They knew exactly what was going to happen, but they ... were afraid to make a decision, because they believed if they made a wrong forecast they will get blame,” Smith said.

Sumalee Prachuab, who heads the department’s Seismological Bureau, has said that in the past the agency exercised caution in issuing alerts because the government’s tourism agency was concerned that false warnings would damage tourism.

“Five years ago, the Meteorological Department issued a warning of a possible tsunami wave after an earthquake occurred in Papua New Guinea, but the tourism authority complained that such a warning would hurt tourism,” Sumalee said.