UNITED NATIONS, May 17 (UPI) -- The head of the U.N. Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization has congratulated nations taking part in a Pacific-wide tsunami warning drill.
"The test has shown that our communication system and general preparedness is by and large working well," UNESCO Director General Koichiro Matsuura said in a statement issued in Paris Wednesday.
Matsuura said countries participating in the test Tuesday were quickly informed of the results, coordinated by the Tsunami Warning Center in Honolulu, Hawaii.
As many as 30 countries took part in the exercise, which also involved local emergency services in selected costal residential areas and schools in Malaysia, the Philippines, Samoa and Thailand.
"The drill was based on very realistic scenarios," explained Patricio Bernal, executive secretary of the UNESCO-Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission, saying it was mainly focused on testing communication networks to ensure information is received quickly by the right people.
"That must work on 24/7 basis," he said. "The ability to effectively disseminate public warnings -- especially very late at night or during the early hours of the morning -- is one such area."
The test also highlighted the issue of how to deal with the extra pressure placed on emergency response agencies facing a tsunami very close to their coasts.
Bernal said, in the scenario applied of a 9.2 earthquake off the Chilean coast, "Chilean authorities would have had to respond in few minutes, with incomplete information." Japan would have had 22 hours to assess the event and adopt "proper" emergency measures.
The Honolulu center is known as the hub of tsunami warning. The IOC is now installing similar systems in the Indian Ocean, the north-eastern Atlantic, Mediterranean and Connected Seas, and the Caribbean, which is due to start functioning by the end of next year.
