Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra is disappointed with the National Broadcasting and Telecommunications Commission (NBTC) and the Public Disaster Prevention and Mitigation Department (PDPMD) for their tardiness in alerting the public via the SMS system about yesterday’s earthquake.
Chairing an emergency meeting today with cabinet ministers and relevant agencies, to discuss the strong earthquake, the prime minister appeared irritated by the delays in the early warning system and had decorative flowers in front of the meeting room removed and was constantly adjusting her microphone.
She then demanded explanations from the two agencies responsible for the early warning system. She told those at the meeting that the earthquake occurred at 1.20pm yesterday and the first thing they should have done was to inform the public about what had just happened.
Pasakorn Boonyalak, director-general of the department, claimed that his department had sent four alert messages about the tremor to the NBTC, the first being sent at 2.20pm after receiving a report from the Meteorological Department.
The first message said that people could enter buildings if necessary, said Pasakorn.
Then, the prime minister turned to NBTC Acting Secretary-General Trairat Wiriyasirikul, who claimed that the first SMS was sent to the public at 2.44pm, adding that, due to the constraints of the system, the message was sent to only about 200,000 mobile phone users.
He also explained that it took a further 15 minutes to send the cell broadcast to the cell sites for the SMS to be disseminated to more phone users.
Trairat said that private phone service providers are now improving their SMS system, which will be capable to sending three million short messages at a time.
More than 10 million messages were sent yesterday, according to the NBTC, but the prime minister quickly shot back, asking why many people in Bangkok complained they had not received any message.
Trairat explained that the first message was sent to phone users in Bangkok, Samut Prakan, Nonthaburi and Pathum Thani. Then, to the remaining provinces, in the second round of transmissions.
The prime minister pointed out that the problem was that the sending of the SMS was too slow and did not cover the majority of phone users, a situation which must be rectified.
The prime minister also ordered a probe into the collapsed building in the Chatuchak area, to determine the exact cause. She also ordered the BMA to open all of the city’s 50 public parks for public access around the clock, for people still affected by the quake to find temporary shelter.
Meanwhile, the Expressway and Rapid Transit Authority of Thailand (EXAT) announced today that all expressway routes have been reopened to normal traffic today, except at the Din Daeng toll way plaza where debris from fallen construction materials are yet to be removed.
EXAT said in a statement today that its structural engineers have inspected the structures of the expressways and confirm that they were not affected by the earthquake yesterday.
