Even though Almaty city authorities spent $2.4 million for an automated emergency alert system it didn’t work during a quake in the early morning of January 23. The Almaty Department of Emergency Situations has commented on the failure.
According to officials, there are 843 sirens in Almaty; they cover 100% of the city’s territory.
«We use sirens only for 5.5-magnitude quakes. This time, our gauges reported only 4 to 5 magnitude earthquakes. There was no need to switch on sirens because they would have created an unnecessary mess with no help to people,» the emergency department said in a statement.
An official spokesperson of the agency also highlighted that alerts by SMS are inefficient.
«These messages never reach people in time. This is why this is an inefficient method of earthquake alert. Usually, we inform people through the media and call on people to follow only information from official sources,» the official highlighted.
According to the Telegram channel Protenge, the $2.4 million contract for the emergency alert system was signed in 2022, although the Almaty Department of Emergency Situations paid for the system in 2023.
The system was designed to «automatically release a sound alert about any potentially devastating seismic wave that comes to Almaty. The system is also supposed to alert people via a mobile app and sirens throughout the city.»
Meanwhile, the emergency department reminded residents of Almaty about the necessity of having an emergency kit with medicine, warm clothes, a flashlight, canned food and an analog cell phone that can last for a week without recharging.
The context. In the early morning of January 23, Almaty reported a 5-magnitude earthquake. The Ministry of Emergency Situations said that the epicenter of the quake was 264 kilometers away from the city at 65 kilometers underneath the Earth’s surface near the border between Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan.
Many residents of the city rushed outside because of the fear of aftershocks. Some of them reported that areas designed for gatherings in such cases were closed.
