BMKG Recommends Earthquake-Tsunami Evacuation Simulation Schools At Least Once A Year

Illustration. House collapsed due to an earthquake in Jatisari Village, Cisompet, Garut Regency, West Java, Saturday, December 13, 2022. (ANTARA-HO-Camat Cisompet)

JAKARTA - The Meteorology, Climatology and Geophysics Agency (BMKG) recommends that schools throughout Indonesia routinely conduct earthquake and tsunami evacuation simulations at least once a year.

"This step aims to make children able to respond quickly and precisely when a disaster actually occurs," said the Head of the Tsunami Mitigation Division of the Indian Ocean and the BMKG Pacific, Holy Dewi Anugerah at the inauguration seminar 'planned to deal with a child-prective megathrust earthquake' which was followed online Wednesday, October 30, confiscated by Antara.

He explained that children also need to be trained to be alert to signs of a tsunami, such as strong or long-lasting earthquake shocks, as well as rapid decline in sea levels that show receding sea water and apparently fish and coral reefs.

In the seminar attended by more than 500 students throughout Indonesia, Suci shared an inspiring story about Tilly Smith, a 10-year-old British girl who managed to save more than 100 tourists at a hotel on the beach of Phuket, Thailand. Thanks to her ability to read natural signs, Tilly warned those around her so that they could avoid the danger of a tsunami.

The BMKG underlined six important components in this simulation, including; availability of alarms (a warning sign for immediate evacuation), response (protection technique on the head-neck section), evacuation zone, gathering place, roll call (calculation of student number), and evaluation (problem identification and constraints in the simulation).

As a vulnerable age group, children need to have adequate preparedness. Data from the Central Statistics Agency (BPS) in 2022 noted that there are 88 million children from the total Indonesian population, making schools an important vehicle to educate them in dealing with disasters.

The Indonesian Child Protection Commission (KPAI) highlighted the vulnerability of children in dealing with disasters, such as a lack of knowledge, limited psychosocial support, and the lack of assistance services. This vulnerability has a serious impact, as evidenced from KPAI data showing 33 cases of child marriage aged 13-17 years due to the earthquake and tsunami disaster in Palu, Central Sulawesi, and 37 cases of child trafficking after the tsunami disaster in Aceh.

Therefore, BMKG believes that routine simulations will form good preparedness among children during an earthquake or tsunami and other accompanying impacts after the disaster occurred.