Singapore may be vulnerable to a tsunami from the east!

last SG · 2005-01-04T22:08:25+00:00

still cannot visualise how Tsunami can hit singapore badly. firstly, if Volcanic activitries from phillipines really hit, it at most will hit some singapore...

Heartlander SG

It may be too naive to believe that Singapore will be totally spare from any tsunami originating from south China Sea! if any volcanic activity greater that 9 on the Richter scale happens on the eastern ring of fire and if there are some movements under the South China Sea, well two third of Singapore may be under water if a tsunami struck from the east coast!

A tsunami early warning system may be able to save life but Singapore is mainly flat land and the final landscape may be Bukit Timah Hill and Mt Faber, together with some HDB flats and tall commercial buildings doting the horizon.

wuming78 SG

i have misgivings over your postulation. can you show us where the "eastern ring of fire" is? as far as i know, the south china sea rests on the same tectonic plate as singapore.

dark_snowboy SG

im living in the west... Very Happy

SingaporeTyrannosaur SG

Then we all die lor… what did you think? That you’ll live forever?

robertteh SG

A friend of was told of a lucky Singaporean's close shave from that tsunami disaster on the morning of 26.12.2004. Let me recount this incident;-

That morning, he and his two young children were playing on the shallow sandy Kamanda beach which stretched very far out to the sea.

For some reasons, his children felt disturbed by the changing tide which for one moment receded completely and the next rising up swiftly.

Because of his children complaints and his concern for their comfort or safety, the father decided to bring them back to the hotel.

From the hotel, he observed for some moments the swaying of the tide one moment receding completely into the distance and the next rising up quickly to nearly engulf many beach goers.

No one seems to notice such telltale little signs of something calamitous which was about to happen.

Somehow, he felt uncomfortable and decided to leave the hotel early. Hours later, back in Singapore airport, he heard the Tsunami calamity that claimed many lives. Luckily for him, he had not ignored the telltale sign or the pleading of his children.

LittleTiger SG

South China Seas doesnt really seems to have volcanic or earth quake Zone.... the only one is at or near philipines and indonesia kalimantan or at the east side of philipines which is open to pacific ocean.

Kalimantan are mountain volacanoes and inland earth quake.

btw... the tsunami when reaching on shore will only be like few 10s metres.... HDB flats and the tall building are safe for the moments. So....... please find/buy ur flat at 5 storey above or preferable 10 storeys to be 100% safe.....

Actually we are not prepared here and we never met this kind of phenomena.
In hawaii or Jap it is consider common and will exist almost every 10 yrs. Once they notice somethings wrong with the wave and sea level they will be alerted.

eg... ppl are still curious why the sea level drop and went deeper to see when the wave suddenly cames..... they were sweap away unprepared. Some father even taking video of his children with seas roaring at the back... and caught unprepared.

CyanSupra SG

haha....
me in north Laughing

robertteh SG

Sumatra side may pose bigger risks of bigger quakes since there have been many such quakes recently. Now the worse has caused the big tsunami.

From a TV documentary, there is a likelihood of big and deep crevices or ravines down in the deep sea due to past erosions. These may be waiting for collapse over time. The many after-shocks should tell us something about this kind of crevices existing below the deep blue sea there off the coast of Sumatra. Was the one that collapsed on 26.12.2004 the worse or most dangerous or are there some bigger ones. If there are, I fear there might be more tsunami or bigger ones. But who knows? Laughing

BaByBoY SG

agrees..

if u study enuff goeg.. u`ll know why sg is in such a gd location
nearly spared from the most natural disasters

the worst we can get are el nino and la nina

-mist- SG

sure bo? if we stay in HDB flat leh? like 15 storey high?

ShutterBug SG

Natural disasers like Tsunami and Earthquakes in Singapore are, geographically (and thankfully) impossible.

I dare not imagine the effect any one of these, can have on us.

From a comical point of view; we could be jolted so hard, our land mass might rejoin the peninsula of Malaysia - and we become one again.....

poon cho tang SG

there were historical records that s'pore waters experienced swells when the krakatoa volcano in the sunda straits near java exploded and was annihilated in the process way back in 1883

gasband SG

Also, Singapore is the only nation in Asean who has a Tsunameter and is part of the global active warning system which will give off a warning and when the authorities sound off the warning to get off the coast, the people should have around 20 min to 2 hours to evacuate the coasts. Although not saying this will save us all, but if really a tsunami hits us, at least we have all the best possible systems.... after that, nobody knows what will happen liao....

SibeiSuayKia SG

Um...No way am i going to submit to a country which treats me like a 2nd class citizen.

if we become 1. they better be under our rule.

KumSioJui SG

I was just thinking abt it and came to the conclusion that it is useless to have an early warning system in singapore. It's not practical. Even if we know a tsunami was going to hit singapore where are we going to evacuate to? If we are as big as malaysia maybe we can evacuate to someplace but we're not so there's no place to go. We should instead review our drainage system and use the money to improve where necessary.

If you look carefully at tsunami that wreacked Bandar Acheh, how is it that massive amounts of seawater flooded inland for only a few minutes but didn't flow out even after a few days could only point to derelect or poor drainage system. The problem is excerbated with bad rainy weather which common at the end of the year, so the trapped water with the help of the rain keeps rising and rising and survivors have to keep moving to higher ground to escape possible inland flash floods getting further and further away hence making their rescue more and more difficult.

I think it's more pratical to improve our drainage system to lessen the effects of such a devastation.

Having said that I do not share the same view for a large country as malaysia or indonesia, being big they have places to evacuate their citizens to, because today it may be Acheh tomorrow god forbid it may be medan or bali. So it will be very expensive for them to build drainage systems on par with singapore standards. Being big countries it's more practical for them to have early warning system instead, but not for us.

Lowclassman SG

I think is good ideal to improve on our drainage system. Yes!!!! I SUGGEST that we should install big gaint pumps at all outlets to the sea...so in the event of Tsunami hits us and flooded all over. ha..ha.. then PUB would activate the pumping of water la..... Mr. Green

Don't you know that We Sg have already prepared long time along??? Then why are we having 2nd causeway? And now our gov are talkiing to Malaysia on the new causeway to replace old one? Why our gov are building raport with Malaysia now. Cos.. when Tsunami comes we can evacuated to Malaysia mah..... Mr. Green

Danisdead101times SG

then did it cause any tragedy?

KumSioJui SG

western side I think we are quite safe because of large land masses to absorb shocks before it reaches us.

what abt eastern board side, I think cheapest solution is mebbe we coordinate with countries on eastern side to dump several hundred tons of concrete into the sea to slow or break down in stages the force of possible tsunami/hurricanes.

LittleTiger SG

tsunami.... depends on the tallnest of the tidal waves leh. SOme reach shores just few inches where some are 10++ metres highs. If you are talking about useless the early warning system... then i guess u are talking about those 100metres!!! waves which is pratically not possible and never before. The problem with Indonesia and India is that all those houses are located just beside the seas and are wooden built.
If it is really that deadly... the whole phuket will be gone instead of only those near the sea side.

Spore is not a 100% flat lands.

crazy monkey SG

STI Home > ST Forum > Story

Jan 4, 2005
Quake west of Luzon would pose a threat

SINGAPORE was spared the tsunami onslaught as there is no direct 'line of sight' for the tidal waves to travel from the undersea earthquake epicentre to the island.

Quake west of Luzon would pose a threat

The epicentre was in the Indian Ocean and the Republic is sheltered by the island of Sumatra. However, the situation would be different if the earthquake had occurred somewhere to the west of the Philippines.

The Philippines has its share of volcanic eruptions and earthquakes (the resort town of Baguio was hit by an earthquake some years ago).

Should a major undersea earthquake strike, say, west of Luzon Island, the resultant tsunami waves would race down the South China Sea, like the North-east Monsoon, to hit the east coast of West Malaysia and Singapore shores. The subsequent destruction of Changi and the East Coast seafronts would be unimaginable.

Can the Civil Defence authorities let us know whether they have now included this scenario in their disaster planning?

Phoon Boon Pin