EDITORIAL - Correct warning that went terribly wrong

Phivolcs 7, which issued a tsunami alert level 2 warning immediately after a 6.9 magnitude earthquake struck Central Visayas, insists it did not make a mistake when it issued the warning. That is only partly true.

The agency was forced to clarify after its warning, coupled with pranksters who went to town crying that a tsunami was coming, sent tens of thousands of Cebuanos to the streets running pell-mell to higher ground and forcing the city to close down.

Of course, in a technical sense, Phivolcs was correct in issuing the warning because there are standards to follow regarding such issuances. Certainly, a 6.9 magnitude earthquake has to prompt some kind of warning. So the Phivolcs had to do what it had to do.

But the fault of the Phivolcs was that it lacked common sense. It merely raised the warning and never bothered to qualify it. If forgot that the warning carried the word “tsunami” and that, to the general public, the only picture that comes to mind is the Japan tragedy.

Another failure of Phivolcs in the common sense department is that it failed to consider the geographical layout of the Central Visayas islands, which are closely-knit together without any large bodies of water to generate a tsunami in the real sense.

An earthquake in this area may trigger relatively big waves, but not the kind people would imagine a tsunami to be. People and Phivolcs just do not see things the same way. In other words, in face of a clear misunderstanding, Phivolcs failed to clear things up for the people.

A 6.9 magnitude earthquake occurring in the Pacific will certainly cause a tsunami. But the same earthquake happening in the Tañon Strait between Negros and Cebu will not, and no amount of explaining by Phivolcs will alter the fact that, indeed, no tsunami happened.

And that is the problem with government agencies that end up with red faces. They try to cover up for their mistakes by insisting no such mistakes were made, never mind if all evidences to the contrary are about to swallow them all up.

The better thing for Phivolcs 7 to do is not engage the public in a debate it cannot win. There are clear lessons it can learn from what happened. That is the direction for it to go. It should strive to make the public better appreciate the meanings of its warnings.