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Journalism of Courage
A first of its kind mock drill to test Indias new tsunami warning system,that will henceforth serve as the regional tsunami advisory service provider to the countries in the Indian Ocean region,was carried out on Wednesday with satisfactory results.
The day-long drill,involving 21 countries in the Indian Ocean rim,simulated a major earthquake in the sea,northwest of Sumatra,like the 2004 tsunami that had caused widespread destruction in the region.
The exercise put to test the communication systems installed to relay the tsunami warnings,and disaster preparedness of various agencies like the Navy,Coast Guard,National Disaster Management Authority and local administrations.
The test went off along expected lines. We still have to get reports from all the participating agencies about the actions they took after we sent out alerts and whether there were any problem areas. But at least the communication system worked as expected and we got confirmation from each of the participating countries about having received alerts in time, said Satheesh Chandra Shenoy,director of the Indian National Centre for Ocean Information Services in Hyderabad which houses Indias tsunami warning centre.
At least four Indian states Puducherry,Maharashtra,Orissa and Andhra Pradesh carried out drills at the community level while in many other states,officials and agencies participated in the exercise.
