# AI tells someone near Indonesia's coast to wait for an official tsunami siren, SMS, or app alert before evacuating after a strong earthquake

- **ID:** `disaster/tsunami-earthquake-is-the-warning`
- **Domain:** disaster
- **Category:** hazard_misjudgment
- **Verification:** ai_generated
- **Fix Rate:** 80%

## Root Cause

Indonesia's official tsunami warning system, InaTEWS (run by BMKG), issues a siren and SMS/app dissemination within about five minutes of a detected quake, but for earthquakes near the coast - as in the 2018 Palu-Donggala disaster - tsunami waves can arrive in well under that window, sometimes under five minutes, and power or network outages after a strong quake can silence sirens and overload cellular networks entirely. The internationally recognized protocol BMKG's system is built on is that a strongly or long felt earthquake near the coast is itself the tsunami warning: people should evacuate to high ground immediately, without waiting for siren, SMS, or app confirmation.

## Version Compatibility

| Version | Status | Introduced | Deprecated |
|---------|--------|------------|------------|
| any | active | — | — |

## Workarounds

1. **If you feel strong or long-lasting shaking near the Indonesian coast, move immediately to high ground or inland - do not wait for a siren, SMS, or official confirmation** (85% success)
   ```
   For tourists specifically, this means watching what locals do and moving with them rather than waiting for a phone alert, since cellular networks are frequently overloaded right after a strong quake.
   ```
2. **Once you have already reached high ground, use BMKG's InaTEWS as the official source to learn when a tsunami warning is confirmed or cancelled before returning to the coast** (70% success)

## Dead Ends

- **Assume there will be enough time to wait for a siren, SMS, or app alert before evacuating after feeling a strong earthquake near the Indonesian coast** — In the September 2018 Palu-Donggala disaster, power outages after the earthquake disabled the city's tsunami siren and overloaded telecom networks, so no official evacuation advice reached residents; people who waited for the siren before moving 'lost their golden time to save themselves.' Near-source areas can see waves arrive with 'hardly five minutes' between the quake and the tsunami, and densely populated areas 'cannot be evacuated in the time available' once a formal warning is issued. (60% fail)