“Impending tsunami’ rumors slammed

PHUKET: The National Disaster Warning Center (NDWC) and Patong Municipality have dismissed as unfounded rumors circulating in Phuket and neighboring provinces that there will be a tsunami today or tomorrow.

The rumors were initially sparked by a spam email two weeks ago, citing a soothsayer as predicting that a tsunami would happen between October 13 and 15.

Today, in addition to people sending or receiving phone calls and SMS messages warning of impending doom, a crowd gathered in Patong, worried that dark clouds and lightning somehow signaled the coming of another tsunami, and the Municipality was flooded with calls asking whether a warning would be issued.

Patong Deputy Mayor Chairat Sukbal stressed, “It is not true. We have not pressed the button to sound the alarms. There is not going to be a tsunami.”

Air Chief Marshal Anuphan Sanitwong na Ayutthaya, Deputy Director of the NDWC, told the Gazette that his team constantly monitors the worldwide earthquake situation, and that there were no earthquakes in India yesterday or today, as reported by the rumor mill.

He pointed out that quakes are a common occurrence. “There are potentially dangerous earthquakes about 10 times a day somewhere in the world.

“Today there have been four or five – in the Antarctic, in Poland, Turkey, Switzerland and France. Yesterday there were about 25, in Fiji, Turkey, Greece and Taiwan, and Pakistan is still feeling aftershocks [from Saturday’s deadly quake].

“Right now there are a lot of rumors flying around, and they are causing fear. People should know that as long as the Earth keeps turning, so will the Earth’s crust. It is normal that some parts of the crust will collide with others; so earthquakes are normal.”