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R E G I O N: Panic grips Assam after quake warning

GUWAHATI: Spooked by the tsunami devastation, panic gripped India’s northeastern state of Assam on Sunday after media picked up a major earthquake alert.

Across Assam, people were performing special community prayers after news spread of a possible tremor hitting the hilly region.

“If at all there is quake, no body can really save us. So we are offering prayers to seek divine blessings to ward off any potential disaster,” said Taranath Goswami, a community elder in eastern Jorhat district. Indian media reported a warning from a Centre for Earth Observing and Space Research at George Mason University in Virginia on Saturday saying that last week’s killer quake off Sumatra could trigger more tremors northwards towards Assam.

“If the sequence of these aftershocks moves further north then it may trigger a very big earthquake in Assam region,” Ramesh P Singh, vice chairman of the International Union of Geodesy and Geophysics Risk Commission, was quoted as saying.

The region has registered at least half-a-dozen moderate tremors in the past two months.

“We are yet to get any official warning or forecast about a possible earthquake hitting the region although the news has created quite a lot of panic in the state,” Assam chief minister Tarun Gogoi told the news agency.

“We have already started gearing up our disaster management plans by alerting all government agencies, besides efforts at creating awareness among the masses to cope in the event of a major quake,” he said.

“We don’t want to trigger the panic button and at the same time we are taking the warning by the US scientists very seriously,” the chief minister said. “We don’t want to be caught napping by ignoring the warnings.”

The state fire department has set up extra water reservoirs in most big cities and towns. “We are working overtime and trying to put all our resources together to meet a possible crisis,” said Assam Fire Organisation director J Mipun. People in Assam were piling up stocks of water and other essentials and keeping to their homes.

“We have purchased biscuits, rice, and other food items, including a torchlight,” said Guwahati resident Narayan Deka.

Government official Arindam Sharma said there had been alarm since the report of a possible quake hitting Assam had been broadcast on television news channels.

“There is total panic with people not sure what to do and how to escape the disaster if at all it happens,” he said. Two weeks ago, a similar quake prediction and a subsequent alert by the government sent thousands of people in Jorhat district, 300 kilometres east of Guwahati, fleeing their homes. The seven northeastern states -Assam, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Tripura, Nagaland, Arunachal Pradesh and Manipur - straddle an earthquake prone belt.

Assam recorded a massive tremor measuring 8.5 on the Richter scale on August 15, 1950, that claimed some 1,500 lives. afp

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