News

More people want tsunami drills conducted in rural areas

October 21, 2019 12:30 pm

More people have made requests to the National Disaster Management Office to have tsunami drills conducted in rural areas.

Acting Director NDMO Litiana Bainimarama says previous tsunami drills have always been conducted in urban centres.

Bainimarama adds there have been requests from villages and government officials in the maritime zones to have similar exercises in their areas.

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“When we started conducting these live tsunami drills in Suva a few years back, we have just been receiving requests from communities, from members of the public, from government reps serving in rural communities to bring this service and exercise down to them. Because these are the ones that will be affected and they don’t usually receive the awareness messages, the reach is not always there, so that is the feedback we’re getting.”

People in parts of Kadavu were quick to move to higher ground after an earthquake that struck 18 kilometers off the island yesterday.

The 5.7 magnitude quake was reportedly felt as far as Nadi and Suva.