MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Chilean navy upgrades communications in anticipation of future disasters

The tsunami alert last February 27 failed

Chilean Navy Commander in Chief Edmundo Gonzalez announced this week that the institution will be spending around 10 million US dollars on new, state of the art communications equipment for its SHOA (Hydrographical and Oceanographic Service) office.

Gonzalez made this announcement this past Sunday in the Navy Building in Valparaiso accompanied by Jaime Ravinet, Minister of Defence, who was visiting the building as part of Heritage Day.

“We’re going to have a unique communications system... We will strengthen the system which will be satellite, but safe. That will allow us to give the alert to all ports in the country, and if it were to fail, that signal will arrive by VHF, or HF, fixed or mobile broadband,” said the commander regarding the new technology.

The new technology includes satellite phones and upgrades for radio equipment. Most of the new upgrades in technology are for SHOA and the National Emergency Servicem ONEMI, said Gonzalez.

Ravinet said of the new system “it’s practically impossible, no matter how strong the catastrophe might be, that the signal will not reach the port captaincies.”

He also said that every single employee working for SHOA must know English, to prevent misunderstandings in communicating with foreign institutions. Both Ravinet and Gonzalez said that the systems are planning to be ready to use by 2012.

These measures are part of what the government’s effort to prevent casualties in future disasters and make sure people are safe and fully informed in the case of catastrophe, following the miscommunication after the earthquake and tsunami hit on Feb. 27.

The miscommunication and equipment failure have been blamed for the cancellation of the tsunami alert. The cancellation resulted in the death of at least 100 people.

By Sebastian Leon – Santiago Times