News - Malaysia to have it's own tsunami alert centre

Malaysia will set up a tsunami alert centre, Minister in the Prime Minister's Department Datuk Seri Nazri Aziz said today.



�We were all caught by surprise on Dec 26. We do not want this to happen again.�



He was speaking to newsmen after sending off the second batch of search and rescue volunteers to Aceh at the TUDM Subang airport.



At present, a tsunami alert centre in Hawaii collects information about possible tidal waves. Pacific Rim countries coordinate and share their observations of the activities in the ocean.



Nazri noted that one of the topics discussed at the emergency summit of world leaders in Jakarta was on having an alert centre in this region. However, its location has not been decided.



He said regardless of the outcome, Malaysia has decided to have its own tsunami alert centre.



�We do not want to be too dependent on the regional centre.�





Source: NST