By Reza Munawir
BANDA ACEH, Indonesia (Reuters) - Sirens wailed and mosque loudspeakers ordered residents of the capital of Aceh province to seek safety as Indonesia kicked off an Indian Ocean-wide tsunami practice drill on Wednesday.
The exercise, a U.N.-backed initiative to test the warning systems and overall preparedness of nations in the region, is supposed to simulate the magnitude 9.15 quake that struck off Aceh on December 26, 2004 and triggered a huge tsunami.
About 230,000 people died as the tsunami raced across the Indian Ocean and hit Indonesia, Thailand, Sri Lanka and India, including 170,000 deaths in Aceh alone.
In Aceh, several hundred took part in the simulation.
"I'm still traumatised from the (2004) tsunami," said Halimah, 43, who watched the drill but did not take part. "If there's another disaster, I prefer to take shelter in the mosque so that if I die, I'd die in the mosque."
Officials from Indonesia's meteorology and geophysics agency in Jakarta issued the test earthquake warning, sending out the notification of a major quake off the coast of Aceh via a telephone text message, followed by a tsunami warning.
People with mock bandages were carried on stretchers, while others pretended to be dead.
A medical team searched the beach for survivors and a speedboat was sent to a bridge that was supposed to have collapsed. Heavy machinery was brought in to help in rescues.
Since the 2004 tsunami, early warning systems ranging from beach loudspeaker sirens to deep ocean monitor buoys have been set up at a cost of about $150 million, according to an official.
TOP OFFICIAL PROCLAIMS DRILL A SUCCESS
Some officials appeared confused during the Aceh drill, but the province's deputy governor declared it a success, while warning against excessive reliance on technology. U.N. officials are to issue an assessment within days.
A series of recent disasters in Asia has raised fresh questions over the state of preparations -- including an earthquake on Indonesia's Sumatra island, and tsunamis in Samoa and American Samoa.
Some experts have questioned the effectiveness of early alert systems, particularly if the time interval between the alarm and the tsunami hitting the area is very short, as would be the case in Indonesia which lies on the fault lines.
Tsunami waves can travel at speeds of 800-1,000 kph (500-600 mph. The height of normal waves and tsunami waves is similar in deep ocean water, but closer to the shore, tsunami waves slow and swell, reaching heights of 10 metres (32 feet) or more.
Countries participating include Australia, Bangladesh, India, Indonesia, Kenya, Madagascar, Malaysia, Maldives, Mauritius, Mozambique, Myanmar, Oman, Pakistan, Seychelles, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Tanzania and East Timor.
(Additional reporting by Olivia Rondonuwu and Dicky Kristanto in Jakarta; Writing by Ed Davies; Editing by Ron Popeski)
