ADVENTURE
Navy Opens Rescue Centre
By www.phuket-post.com
Oct 30, 2006, 06:04

The Royal Thai Navy Third Fleet has opened a 24-hour marine rescue operations centre on the island (with one planned for the Ko Lanta/Phi Phi area) and recently performed rescue demonstrations off Patong Beach to show their preparedness. Rear Admiral Amornchot Sujirat told Phuket Post that there are 22 officers standing by at the operations centre, which is located at Loma Park on Thaweewong Road, in Patong. “The operations team is ready to rescue victims of marine accidents at any time,” he said.

The officers are also trained as beach guards and are fully equipped with rescue supplies including a dinghy and speed boat. “They are ready to go into action immediately and are available 24-hours a day,” he said. “Additionally, there are two helicopters available to enable them to access emergency scenes quickly.”

RADM Amornchot explained that a second centre will be set up in Khao Lak and will be followed by centres in the Surin and Similan island, and on Koh Lanta and Koh Phi Phi. However, a land use problem must be solved before some of the centres can be established, as some of the sites chosen are in national park areas. “The total budget is planned to be up to 60 million baht,” he said, “but this does not include more helicopters for the other centres.”

“We have a trained and prepared team ready for the coming high season,” he said. “From October 2005 until now, there were 13 reports of marine accidents requiring our team’s assistance, including lost and sunken motorboats, damaged boats, boat fires, sick tourists at sea and injured scuba divers.”

The navy has also set up sea level monitoring stations machines at nine points along the Andaman coast. As well as monitoring and updating reports from these points, they also monitor other monitoring stations at three points near Sumatra and the Nicobar Islands. “If there are any earthquakes or tsunami waves in Indonesia, the officers would know about it at least two hours before the waves would reach the coast; and 30 minutes in advance if it happens in the Nicobar Islands.”

http://phuket-post.com/article.php?id=382


© Copyright by kolantamagazine.com