Tsunami warning system to be tested

Up to 28 countries will help test a new tsunami warning system in the Pacific next month in what is thought to be the first exercise of its kind.

A mock tsunami warning call in Hawaii will launch the drill May 16, and will be sent to national emergency authorities in each cooperating country, the Paris-based UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation said today in a statement.

In the second stage of the exercise, either the same day or the next, government officials will spread the warning message to local emergency authorities.

Countries coordinating the Pacific Wave 2006 exercise include Australia, Chile, Fiji, New Zealand, Nicaragua, Russia, Samoa and the US.

The drill will be the first in a series of exercises aimed at helping countries prepare and evaluate their abilities to respond to a tsunami, and at coordinating actions among different countries, UNESCO said.

“More tsunamis occur in the Pacific than in any other ocean. It is therefore imperative that all nations in this region participate,” UNESCO Director-General Koichiro Matsuura said in the statement.

UNESCO called for better preparedness following the 9.0-magnitude tsunami that killed or left missing more than 220,000 people in 11 Indian Ocean countries in December 2004.