Tsunami alert creates flutter

Tension prevailed for some time on Sunday among people, particularly thousands of fisherfolk of all coastal villages in East Godavari, when the district administration, mainly the revenue and police departments alerted them not to venture into the Bay of Bengal, in the wake of an earthquake of 7.2 magnitude in the Indonesian province of Aceh; this triggered fears of a tsunami.

Visitors and tourists were also asked to stay away from the beach. Control rooms with 100, 1077 and 0884-2345428 emergency phone numbers were opened in the district to monitor the situation.

Soon after directions from the Chief Minister, Mr K. Rosaiah, the collector, Mr M. Ravi Chandra, instructed the joint collector, Mr K. Sasidhar and police staff on Sunday afternoon to visit coastal areas in the district including the Suryaraopeta beach in Kakinada city to enquire about the waves and official precautionary measures in East Godavari, which has a coastline of 161 kms with 90 fishing villages in 13 mandals.

Hundreds of fisherfolk families of low-lying areas and those near the sea, were shifted to safer places.
Soon after the tsunami alert, president of the East Godavari District Fishermen Co-operative Society, Mr B. Rangarao, appealed to the police and coast guard to take immediate steps to rescue hundreds of fishermen who had already ventured into the sea for fishing in spite of the 47-day ban. The Coast guard vessels were sent into the sea to get the fishermen back.

Meanwhile, the chief executive officer of the Kakinada Deep Water Port, Mr Y.S. Prasad told this newspaper that they had come to know about the tsunami alert through media and other sources, but not received any official alerts from the Indian Coast Guard.

Meanwhile, the officials initiated several measures to alert the people along the sea coast in Narasapuram and Mogalturu areas in West Godavari. Official teams visited Pedamainavanilanka, Chinamainavanilanka, Vemuladeevi, Biyyaputippa and surrounding villages in Narasapuram area and advised the people not to go near the sea coast.
Some fisherfolk families vacated their houses and took shelter in the near by cyclone shelters. Meanwhile four fishermen who ventured in to sea of fibre boats on Saturday returned safely on Sunday much to the relief of local fishermen.

In Mogalturu area the information of probable tsunami created tension. Revenue staff guarded the coast for a distance of 9 km. The mandal tahsildar, Mr Dilip Kumar supervised the implementation of these precautions by revenue staff.