Chennai, Hyderabad: The residents of Chennai had a sleepless Monday night. They were woken up by tremors caused by a powerful earthquake off the Andaman islands a little past midnight. Tremors lasting about 20 seconds were triggered by a powerful 7.8 magnitude earthquake in the Indian Ocean about 270 kms north of Port Blair.
The tremors brought back memories of the 2004 tsunami.
Said K Srimathy, a Chennai resident: "I first thought I was imagining something but soon realised it was a fairly powerful earthquake. I tried calling the Met office but no one picked up."
Tremors were also felt in Kolkata and Bhubaneswar. What caused panic was a tsunami alert by the Pacific Centre of the US. This was withdrawn after about two hours. Authorities across costal Tamil Nadu swung into action within 20 minutes. They were all set to evacuate people along the coast.
But in about an hour from the time tremors were felt, the Indian Tsunami Warning Centre in Hyderabad, reported no cause for alarm.
Said Rajesh Lakhoni, Corporation Commissioner (Chennai): "The Hyderabad Centre confirmed at 2.45 am that no tsunami was coming and at that point we stopped our vigil along coastal stretches."
Director INCOIS Satish Shenoy added: "We issued the first bulletin within six minutes of the earthquake stating that we were evaluating its tsunamigenic potential. Subsequently, we issued a second bulletin at 2.45 am."
In the end, the Indian scientists got it right. But the false alarm by the Western Agency served to test the alertness of local authorities.