CTEC, the Community Tsunami Early-warning Centre, is located just outside the village of Peraliya, Thelwatta, in the Hikkaduwa region of Sri Lanka.
Following the Boxing Day tsunami in the Indian Ocean, Hikkaduwa was one of the most devastated regions in Sri Lanka. An unsuspecting Peraliya was quickly thrown into the world media spotlight as it was also the site of the world’s largest-ever train disaster when the Queen of the Seas Colombo-Galle Express train derailed there in the waves of December 26, 2004.
It is estimated that some 2,500 people died in the village while only 8 walls of 500 plus houses remained standing. False tsunami warnings occurred daily- usually given by worried villagers or a drunk and in response to the false alarm, people would panic and get hurt or killed.
A solution was needed so we co-founded CTEC –which is the first Community Tsunami Early-warning Center in Sri Lanka. the Co-founder was my trusted Sri Lankan friend Dr Novil, who had been working in our hospital. Sirens were set up around the surrounding villages and a rotation schedule of officers enabled us to be open 24 hours a day.
CTEC continues to grow and in Dec 26th 2024 it will be the 20th year anniversary of the 2004 tsunami and of CTEC. There will be major memorials and events at CTEC that day.
We have also opened a Children’s Learning Museum where students ( and tourists) can come and learn about disasters.
It is obvious that if a proper warning system were already in place, many lives would have been saved in the tsunami. An international coordinated tsunami warning system has been proposed but is still not in operation. In the meantime, the Indian Ocean region remains largely unprotected.
Our goal is to protect the Sri Lankan coastline with an Early-warning system in place and to also create a culture of preparation in case of a future disaster.
Our main ask now is funding to replace our current sirens affected by the salt air with state of the art solar rust proof sirens.
Love Dr. Alison Thompson- Co-Founder- CTEC.
