Central Weather Bureau (CWB) Director-General Hsin Tsai-chin says the nation’s new earthquake early warning system is not effective near the epicenter. He was responding on Monday to lawmakers’ questions about why the government was unable to send an early warning to the public 30 seconds before an earthquake like Japan did when a powerful quake struck in March of 2011.
The questions arose after Taiwan was rocked by a magnitude 5.8 quake last Thursday. It took between 23 and 28 seconds after the quake for Taiwan’s cell phone users to receive the warning.
Hsin said that no country is able to predict when an earthquake will occur. He said that the alerts are only effective in areas that are more than 60 kilometers from the epicenter.
“The quake early warning system has a blind spot. There is no way to send a warning in advance to areas that are 40, 50 or 60 kilometers from the epicenter. It’s the same in Japan. People say Japan has done a great job in sending out early warnings," said Hsin, "But I have to clarify that. Japan sent a warning to Tokyo within 30 or 40 seconds after the 2011 quake, that’s about 400 kilometers from the [epicenter]. In other words, if a quake hits northern [Taiwan], there is time to send a warning to Hengchun Township [in the south]. I think the Central Weather Bureau definitely has the ability to do that.”