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Montañita in the afternoon |
Now that the President of Ecuador, Rafael Correa, lifted the national tsunami alert a few minutes ago, and having to regret only one serious accident in the province of Santa Elena, with a member of the fire department involved and with a reserved status, it would be a good time to start reflecting on whether the contingency plans for this type of event would actually be ready to be applied in the (really probable) case in which the event of a tsunami has a shorter time between the moment in which the alert is lifted and the event itself.
From the magazine BallenitaSi Online, we believe it is appropriate to list some points that were reported or commented on by those potentially affected and that could be improved in order to achieve this objective, which we present as an analysis:
1. There were complaints that early in the morning, from Montañita there were transporters who were aiming to charge 10 USD for a fare that normally costs 1.50 USD to Santa Elena. POSSIBLE SOLUTION: Plan in advance with the transporters the need and importance of their role during these events. The solution that appeared throughout the day, such as that "the Government would recognize the transporters for their work" should not be something to "get out of trouble" or "do good" but the product of planning.
2. The radio stations once again played a very important role. Unfortunately, at least for a good part of the morning, when listening to any of them, different things were heard on each one, conflicting information, etc. For example, on one they were broadcasting live to Juan Antón (SNGR-SE) and a few minutes later on another they questioned why no one from Risk Management had made a statement. POSSIBLE SOLUTION: Once this type of alarm and state of emergency is declared, all the media should link up and share this information, which should only come from authorized sources.
3. IN ALMOST NONE OF THE COMMUNITIES THAT MAY BE AFFECTED, THERE IS NO REAL AND EFFICIENT ALARM SYSTEM. More than a year ago, this was one of the ideas that was proposed in the community of Ballenita, in a meeting held before the SNGR-SE. Although a competition for this purpose is mentioned on the Secretariat's website, nothing concrete is seen in the communities. It is necessary and a priori that this system be implemented and socialized with these communities. Montañita, with its loudspeaker system, in the style of "radio bemba" has demonstrated to have a fast, economic, efficient and positive effect in keeping the community up to date. On the other hand, for example, in Ballenita, during yesterday, about 4 hours after the Government's decision, there was no call or loudspeaker. The radio system worked, but with the aforementioned flaws.
4. There must be greater dissemination of the steps to follow, evacuation zones, delimitation and signage of these in ALL communities with possible impact. POSSIBLE SOLUTION: Strengthening the SNGR at a national level. In Santa Elena province, less than 10 people have definitely not been able to cope despite their proven efforts to multiply to cover all these areas of training, adaptation and signage for safe zones, we simply do not have them. The Government rushed because the population, in a country like Ecuador, should be highly prepared for these events and the panic seen throughout the day showed otherwise.
More than 200,000 people were evacuated without further incident, demonstrating a great joint effort by the government and society. However, it is a priority to first admit these shortcomings in order to correct them promptly.
A big thank you to all those who worked for more than 20 hours, giving their best effort to ensure that this evacuation process did not cause any regrettable incidents, and also a strong criticism to the very few who did not even imagine that it was a good time to take economic advantage of those who were struggling to get out of critical places.