Newspaper Review 2

Article: Singapore faces negligible tsunami risks
Section: 17th December 2008, Home B1 and B2

Summary:

The Impact of any tsunami, triggered by quakes in the region, on Singapore would be minimal, according to a new two-year study. Computer stimulations used in the study found that it would take an earthquake, in Indonesian or Philippine waters measuring about 9.0 on the Richter scale to generate a tsunami powerful enough to reach Singapore. Even then, it would take 10 hours before the first waves hit Singapore.
6 beaches in Singapore is being identified as potentially vulnerable areas, where waters up to 0.7m above average sea level reach 50m inland, they are, West Coast Park, Labrador Park, Pasir Ris Park, East Coast Park, Sentosa and Southern Islands. National Environment Agency (NEA) commissioned National University of Singapore (NUS) and Nanyang Technological University (NTU) to conduct the study in 2006, its aim is to discover the effects of tidal waves, caused by underwater movements, on Singapore.

Reflection:

Although studies shown that Singapore faces negligible tsunami risks and even if the waves hit inland, they will not be life threatening. Public should be still on their guard and cooperate with National Environment Agency (NEA). For example, when the warning siren is activated because the impact would be severe, the public should act accordingly to instructions that will be given by the policemen to ensure everybody’s safety. There also shouldn’t be any doubts from the public when the siren is activated as NEA would receive alerts within two minutes of their occurrence and analyse the data to ascertain whether it will hit Singapore all these checks will only take one hour compared to taking 10 hours for the 9.0 scale wave to hit Singapore, it would be considered enough for NEA to check everything thoroughly.
On the other hand, the modified program used in Japanese tsunami warning systems that is considered among the best in the world still have to constantly updated and maintained so as to be able to detect movements in the waters accurately and not activate the siren unnecessarily to alarm the public.
So it would take both the public and NEA cooperation to ensures everyone’s safety and for everything to go well.

Juliana