Spooking the public: Authorities issue false Tsunami warning in Karachi

Municipal commissioner terms mistake a 'typo'

KARACHI: The District Municipal Corporation (DMC) East falsely issued a tsunami and thundershower warning in the city on Tuesday, which the DMC's municipal commissioner later termed as a 'typo.'

The Pakistan Meteorological Department (PMD) and National Seismic Monitoring Centre issued a press release regarding the Indian Ocean-Wide Tsunami exercise in which it invited the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA), provincial disaster management authority, Karachi commissioner, deputy commissioners of Badin, Thatta, Gawadar and Lasbela, Pakistan Navy, Pakistan Air Force, Karachi Port Trust and Karachi Nuclear Power Complex, along with the media.

"We see this exercise as an essential element in the routine maintenance of the Indian Ocean Tsunami Warning and Mitigation System," said chief meteorologist Muhammad Hanif, adding that the goal was to ensure timely and effective notification of tsunamis, educate communities at risk about safety preparedness and improve coordination.



Hanif assured, "We will evaluate what works well, where improvement is needed, make necessary changes and continue to practice."

According to the press statement, Pakistan has joined over 20 other countries around the Indian Ocean in mock tsunami scenarios on September 4 and 5. It builds on previous exercises conducted in 2009, 2011, 2014 and 2016 and tsunami evacuation drills conducted in five schools of Karachi in November and December, 2017 in collaboration with the United Nations Development Programme, PMD and the local administration.

The press statement, however, was misinterpreted by the DMC East and it issued a circular stating that in pursuance of the press release issued by the chief meteorologist, scattered rain, thundershowers, and tsunami are expected in Karachi in September next year.

The notification, in its second paragraph, directed the education directorate to arrange a classroom at the schools in DMC East for students and teachers for a mock evacuation session.

Talking to The Express Tribune, Met department Director Abdul Rashid termed DMC East's notification 'absurd' and said thunderstorm and tsunami have no link to one another and they weren't expecting any of it in Karachi. "We just wrote to different departments for their participation in the tsunami drills," he confirmed.

Meanwhile, DMC East Municipal Commissioner Akhtar Ali Sheikh, attempting to cover up the mistake, claimed there must be a typing error by their department. "We are arranging drills in schools falling in DMC East and no tsunami is hitting Karachi," he explained.