0 Hotels urged to draft tsunami response

The Disaster Management Agency is urging hotels in Bali to draft standard operational procedures (SOP) for emergency response in the event of a tsunami. “Hotels should have practicable tsunami-ready procedures, especially those located on the coast. Hotels that already have procedures need to undergo certification,” head of the agency’s center for operations control (Pusdalops) I Gede Jaya Seratabarana said on Tuesday. 

The tsunami-ready procedure would be a requirement when a hotel proposed or extended an operating license, he said, adding that the agency would be ready to assist if hotels found it difficult to draft their own SOP. He cited Hard Rock Hotel Bali as a good example of a hotel that had already implemented its SOP. “The hotel management gave us footage on how they implemented the tsunami-ready SOP when we conducted a simulation of the early warning system in Kuta this morning. 

The hotel has been successful in putting their SOP into practice,” he said. On the 26th day of every month, the agency turns on the early warning system in Kuta at 10 a.m. He said that every hotel must have had their own SOP to brace for disasters, but the system needed to be tested periodically, especially along the coast like in Kuta and Nusa Dua. According to Jaya, hotels in the Bali Tourism Development Corporation (BTDC) area in Nusa Dua had yet to make detailed evacuation maps in accordance with the hotels’ conditions there. 

Jaya said Patra Hotel, which is located by the beach near Ngurah Rai Airport, was currently drafting its tsunami-ready SOP and would conduct a test next month. “It will be good for Bali if all hotels are aware about the importance of having an emergency response system. They will be able to ensure safety for their guests,” Jaya said. He added that the agency had been consulting with the National Agency for Standardization to prepare for the tsunami-ready certification, as well as with the hotel association. 

To obtain the certificate, hotels should have the SOP, evacuation plan and site, information network system, as well as other supporting facilities. During the last two weeks, the Pusdalops has been operating new instrumentation consisting of an internet modem and portable computer that would provide the latest information on weather conditions, disasters and climate in Bali. The computer screen will display real-time information from the head office of the Meteorology, Climatology and Geophysics Agency (BMKG). 

The real-time information resulting from satellite images in Jakarta would be immediately distributed through short message service (SMS) to institutions and companies registered with the Pusdalops. “We don’t need an operator for this instrument because it will automatically display real-time information from the BMKG head office,” Eka Saputra, an IT official at the Pusdalops, said, while showing the screen displaying information on an earthquake in Aceh and southwest of Maluku, as well as wind speeds in some regencies in Bali that reached 43 kilometers per hour. Some hotels have reportedly expressed their interest in buying the instrumentation, worth Rp 15 million to Rp 20 million (US$1,540-2,054), to be installed in their lobbies to provide information for their guests.

source : bali daily