CPD to participate in tsunami preparedness exercise

The Civil Protection Department (CPD) will be taking part in a Tsunami Warning Systems Exercise involving several countries in the  Northeast Atlantic and the Mediterranean. The exercise will be held tomorrow morning. The Intergovernmental Coordination Group for the Tsunami Early Warning and Mitigation System in the North-eastern Atlantic, the Mediterranean and connected seas (ICG/NEAMTWS) was formed in response to the tragic tsunami of December 26, 2004, in which over 250,000 lives were lost around the Indian Ocean region. A number of Tsunami Warning Centres (NTWCs) were established in a number of countries in September. Tomorrow's exercise will assess the national and local warning dissemination and response mechanisms. The Mediterranean Sea is historically a seismically active with large earthquakes having taken place in Greece, Italy, and Turkey. An earthquake 1,647 years ago near Crete causing several meters of uplift in western Crete. The earthquake caused a devastating tsunami that impacted the south coast of Crete and the northern coast of Egypt, particularly in Alexandria. There is also evidence that tsunami waves also traveled east towards Cyprus, west towards Malta,...