Text tsunami alert plans

Wakayama — Wakayama’s prefectural government is planning to create an email and text tsunami warning system for residents. The system will link to underwater sensors currently being built by the Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Sciene and Technology (JAMSTEC).

These sensors would monitor an area known as the Nankai Trough, just off the Pacific coast. This is a possible epicentre for a tsunami, should simultaneous earthquakes hit the Tokai, Nankai and Tonankai central and southwestern regions.

If a situation like this is predicted, Wakayama residents would be alerted by text and email to prompt an early evacuation.

The prefectural government, the first to use JAMSTEC equipment this way, wants to put the system in place by April 2013.