Phang Nga, Thailand – About 400 residents of the Ban Nam Khem village here were evacuated early Tuesday morning following warnings that a tsunami could hit their shore.
Maitree Jongkraijak, a coordinator of the village, told Thai newspaper The Nation that a text message warning from the National Disaster Monitoring Centre was received at about two minutes after midnight about a possible tsunami because of a quake in the Indian Ocean.
Jongkraijak then alerted 60 volunteers to be on standby. When another text message warning arrived at 5:00 am, he and the volunteers woke up other residents of the community and led about 400 of them to Ban Nam Khem School, which is a 3-storey building.
The residents returned home at 7:00 am when the center sent another text message canceling the tsunami warning.
The Ban Nam Khem village was devastated by a tsunami in December 2004.