INCOIS conducts Tsunami mock exercise along the Indian ocean

A major mock tsunami exercise titled ‘IOWave23’ along the Indian Ocean was conducted by Hyderabad-based INCOIS in collaboration with NDMA in which three major countries including Australia, India and Indonesia participated.

Hyderabad: A major mock tsunami exercise titled ‘IOWave23’ along the Indian Ocean was conducted by Hyderabad-based Indian National Centre for Ocean Information Services (INCOIS) in collaboration with National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) in which three major countries including Australia, India and Indonesia participated.

As a part of the exercise, the Tsunami Early Warning Centre (ITEWC) of INCOIS issued a warning that simulated an earthquake of magnitude 9.0 in Andaman at 9.30 am. A total of 15 test tsunami bulletins were issued to both national and regional stakeholders through Global Telecommunication System (GTS), email, fax, SMS as well as share the bulletin on INCOIS website.

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Care was taken to ensure the public is not inadvertently alarmed and over 40,000 people from 42 coastal villages of East coast of India of Tamil Nadu, Odisha, Puducherry, and Andaman Islands were evacuated. The purpose of mock exercise was to increase tsunami preparedness, evaluate response capabilities in each state and improve coordination throughout the region.

“This first IOWave23 exercise was well conducted, and it was an eye-opener for NDMA,” said Col. Nadeem Arshad, Consultant (Operations), NDMA.

Dr. T. Srinivasa Kumar, Director, INCOI said that the NDAM and State/UT Disaster management Authorities of Andaman, Odisha, Tamil Nadu, and Puducherry and were able to smoothly evacuate over 40,000 people. A similar exercise will be conducted on October 11 for the West Coast of India.