09 May 2011 | 14:28

Minister of Education to deal with those behind late earthquake warning

Bakytzhan Zhumagulov. Yaroslav Radlovsky©

Kazakhstan Minister of Education and Science promised to deal with those responsible for late notification about the 5.4 quake in Almaty oblast on May 1, Tengrinews.kz reports. “Three of us (Ministers of Education and Science, Emergency Situations, Communications and Information) were instructed to set the system for timely notification of the people based on the forecasts made by all our seismic stations. Prime-Minister told us to find out why no timely information was provided to Almaty citizens. We will sort this out,” said Bakytzhan Zhumagulov. “This (notification of residents) was a responsibility of the Emergency Situations Ministry and The Ministry of Communications. Our side is Seismology Institute, which makes the forecasts. Our responsibility is to notify the Ministry of Emergency Situations and not the people,” said Zhumagulov. "Predicting earthquakes is an absolutely futile undertaking,” said the Minister of Emergency Situations Vladimir Bozhko. Speaking about the reason behind the late notification of Almaty residents he said: “The reason of the delay in provision of information to people was that no statement on the nature of the earthquake was made by the Seismology Institute of the Ministry of Education and Science. They had to say whether this first shock was a precursor of a stronger quake or it was the earthquake itself. But the Seismology Institute was collecting and analyzing information on the shocks at that time.”

Kazakhstan Minister of Education and Science promised to deal with those responsible for late notification about the 5.4 quake in Almaty oblast on May 1, Tengrinews.kz reports. “Three of us (Ministers of Education and Science, Emergency Situations, Communications and Information) were instructed to set the system for timely notification of the people based on the forecasts made by all our seismic stations. Prime-Minister told us to find out why no timely information was provided to Almaty citizens. We will sort this out,” said Bakytzhan Zhumagulov. “This (notification of residents) was a responsibility of the Emergency Situations Ministry and The Ministry of Communications. Our side is Seismology Institute, which makes the forecasts. Our responsibility is to notify the Ministry of Emergency Situations and not the people,” said Zhumagulov. "Predicting earthquakes is an absolutely futile undertaking,” said the Minister of Emergency Situations Vladimir Bozhko. Speaking about the reason behind the late notification of Almaty residents he said: “The reason of the delay in provision of information to people was that no statement on the nature of the earthquake was made by the Seismology Institute of the Ministry of Education and Science. They had to say whether this first shock was a precursor of a stronger quake or it was the earthquake itself. But the Seismology Institute was collecting and analyzing information on the shocks at that time.”

quake Ministry of Emergency Situations Ministry of Education and Science Kazakhstan Kazakh earthquake Almaty