Bay of Palma most at risk to tsunami

CIVIL Protection earthquake experts yesterday discussed plans of action to be taken in case of an earthquakes or tsunamis in the Balearics, especially in the Bay of Palma which, according to the Balearic director general for Emergencies, Joan Pol, is a high risk area. He was speaking after the fourth meeting of the working group charged with developing emergency plans as part of the National Commission, formed by heads of Andalucia, Catalonia, Valencia, Murcia, the Canary Islands and the Balearics, the parts of Spain most at risk from earthquakes. According to Pol, in drawing up the new emergency plans, scientists have been evaluating the level of risk in relation to buildings and how many people live they house. After this, the technical committee has develop anti-earthquake strategies which should be applied to these buildings. It is they who are in charge of cataloguing the buildings which are most vulnerable to earthquakes in order to determine which of them could or could not be reoccupied and which of them would have to be reinforced after an earthquake or tsunami. Andalucia, Murcia and the Valencia region are those that have the highest level of risk, while Catalonia and the Balearic Islands have a “low” risk level, according to Pol. Even so, said Pol, in the Balearics other factors should be taken into account, such as the height above sea level of Majorcan mountains (such as the Sierra de Tramontana) bringing a danger of land slides and, especially, risks of a tsunami. He said that in May 2003 there was a tsunami, which is well documented, and that, in the last 300 years there had been up to five recorded in the Balearics. Because of this, regional emergency plans stipulate the necessary procedures for rapid action in the case of a tsunami to inform the population in the areas at risk. This protocol, which establishes the threshhold from which to start the correct procedures to “minimise the consequences” of a tsunami, giving special attention to the buildings most vulnerable to this type of geological movement, generally the highest and oldest. In the case of the Balearics these are concentrated in the Bay of Palma. The committee also discussed at what level this protocol should be applied and how to evaluate this risk threshhold, in addition to ensuring that all the professionals who will be called upon in a case of an earthquake emergency will be operating from the same criteria for action.