EMBASSY OF SRI LANKA ALERTS SRI LANKAN AUTHORITIES OF POTENTIAL TSUNAMI OCCURRENCE
FOLLOWING EARTHQUAKE IN NORTHERN SUMATRA

The Embassy of Sri Lanka in Washington D.C. received a warning call from the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center (PTWC) in Hawaii, U.S.A. at 11.20 am ET informing that an earthquake, measuring a preliminary magnitude of 8.2, had struck off the coast of Indonesia on Monday March 28, 2005 at 11.09 am ET. The earthquake, described as an after -shock to the December 26, 2004 earthquake that launched a deadly Tsunami, had occurred on the same fault-line.

Following the warning from the PTWC in Hawaii, the Embassy of Sri Lanka immediately contacted both the civilian and military authorities in Sri Lanka. Ambassador Devinda R. Subasinghe, Sri Lanka’s Ambassador to the United States, recommended that a warning be issued given the PTWC’s observations that the earthquake which was 30 km deep and 203 kilometer (126 miles) from Sibolga on Sumatra Island has the potential to generate a widely destructive Tsunami in the ocean or seas near the earthquake. Thereafter, the Government of Sri Lanka issued a Tsunami warning and coordinated with local authorities evacuation of residents in the coastal areas.

After the destructive Tsunami on December 26, 2004, Ambassador Subasinghe in close consultation with the PTWC in Hawaii established a system to ensure that the PTWC alerted the Defence, Military, Naval and Air Attache at the Embassy of Sri Lanka in the event of a impending Tsunami. The system established last year was mobilized successfully today.

Embassy of Sri Lanka
Washington DC
USA

28 March 2005