TUESDAY, MAY 14, 2024
Team Herald
panjim: In a major blunder, the Department of Information & Technology on Tuesday circulated a message issuing ‘Tsunami alert’ in Goa creating panic among the people.
“There is a Tsunami alert in whole State of #Goa which will likely to hit at 2.52pm today, ie. October 20, 2020 as informed by Disaster Management Authority, South Goa District,” read the message posted on media groups and their official Twitter handle on Tuesday.
No sooner the message went viral, social media like Twitter and Facebook was abuzz with people alerting each other about a possible Tsunami in Goa.
The India Meteorological Department (IMD), Goa Observatory soon pitched in to dismiss any such alert while clarifying it was a mock drill. An IMD officer said he was a part of the mock drill by Captain of Ports and that Goa faces no Tsunami scare.
Some social media users then demanded the DIP to stop misleading the people. “When r u (are you) going to tell tht (that) it is just a MOCK DRILL> I posted as the status telling people not to go near the beach today n (and) then my friend told it’s just a mock drill. Simple I panicked,” a twitter user Affef posted.
Another Twitter user Harshal Desai asked, “Isn’t it a MOCK DRILL? If so, why create a panic? Please clarify.”
The DIP, thereafter posted a two-thread Tweet stating, “The IO Wave 20 table top exercise conducted by the State Disaster Management Authority culminated at 12.40pm with the Incident Commander declaring it over. The State checked the preparedness of the line department including the execution of SOPs in handling crisis arising of Tsunami. The exercise was conducted successfully with all the line department co-ordinating in sync in handling the situation.”
However, neither the misleading tweet was withdrawn nor a clarification or an apology was issued by the department.
