Indonesia admits tsunami warning system did not function during earthquake

The Indonesian agency for disaster prevention admitted that most buoys which were installed to alert on the arrivals of tsunami were not working on Wednesday when a strong earthquake struck in the Indian Ocean off Sumatra island, according to a statement released Friday on its website.

“The damaged early warning systems will be repaired and those which are broken will be replaced by new ones,” said National Disaster Mitigation Agency (BNPB) head Willem Rampangilei in the statement.

The earthquake on Wednesday, measuring 7.9 on the Richter scale, was first reported to have struck at a shallow depth of 10 kilometers and had its epicenter west of the Indonesian island of Sumatra, some 800 kilometers from the city of Padang.

The United States Geological Service (USGS) later corrected the depth to 24 km.

After the earthquake, the Indonesian meteorological agency issued a tsunami warning for Sumatra island, a common procedure for all earthquakes above 6.5 magnitude and a depth of less than 20 kilometers.

However, most tsunami warning buoys, which measure the force and speed of water movement, did not work and remain inoperative.

This circumstance delayed the lifting of the tsunami warning, officials said.

The earthquake caused no fatalities or major damage and no giant waves were recorded.