LEAD: Thai beach resort commemorates 2004 tsunami

Dec 26, 2011, 9:22 GMT

Bangkok - Phuket Island on Monday held memorial ceremonies for more than 5,000 lives lost during the December 26, 2004 tsunami that caught Thailand's Andaman coastline by surprise.

A magnitude-9.3 earthquake off the coast of northern Sumatra triggered a tsunami that killed about 230,000 people in 14 countries rimming the Indian Ocean. One expert warned another one would be hard to detect in southern Thailand yet today.

'There was a regional tsunami warning system in place six years ago but now it doesn't work,' said Smith Dharmasaroja, the Thai meteorologist who warned the government about the risk of a tsunami striking the country years before one did.

Smith, who was appointed chairman of the National Disaster Warning Administration in 2005 and assigned to put a warning system in place, said it system was no longer functioning properly.

Warning buoys placed off Phuket in 2005 have not functioned reliably due to lack of replacement parts, according to experts.

'Don't worry about the buoys. Even some of the warning towers don't work,' said Smith, who was attending a memorial service in Phuket, 700 kilometres south of Bangkok.

'Just yesterday big waves hit the eastern coast of Thailand, flooding many houses, and there were no warnings of that storm,' Smith said of the high waves that hit other southern provinces on Sunday.

Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra acknowledged Monday that the country's disaster warning system needed work.

'Our early warning system is still imperfect,' Yingluck said in Bangkok. 'We need to improve our efficiency.'

The 2004 tsunami disaster resulted in 5,395 known deaths in Thailand, and 2,817 are still listed as missing. Nearly half of the victims were foreign tourists holidaying at resorts on the Andaman Sea coast on Phi Phi and Phuket islands, and Phangnga province.

The tidal wave, the first to strike the region in more than a century, caught the resorts by surprise.

On Phuket Island, Buddhist, Christian and Muslim prayers were offered Monday at a memorial in Mai Khao, on the northern part of the island, 700 kilometres south of Bangkok, Radio Thailand reported.

Relatives of the dead and consulates laid flowers on the memorial, with 45 flags of the countries that had lost citizens.

On Monday night, a candlelight prayer ceremony was scheduled at Phuket's Patong beach.

Sweden's death toll was heaviest in Thailand, at more than 500.

Despite the disaster, Phuket has remained a popular destination for Scandinavians.

'Last year, some 330,000 Scandinavian tourists came to Phuket, making them our largest-single market,' said Bang-ornrat Shinaprayon, Phuket director of the Tourism Authority of Thailand.

The island is expected to attract 5.1 million tourists this year, up from 4 million in 2004, she said.

Since the 2004 disaster, Thai authorities have installed warning towers on popular beaches and provide information at most hotels on escape routes and what to do in case of another tsunami.

'We have many warning systems,' Bang-ornrat insisted. 'We are like an experienced person who has survived a disaster.'