Muscat: Issa Al Hussain, Director, Earthquake Monitoring Center at the Sultan Qaboos University, saw no impact of the tsunami threat by the Pacific Tsunami Warning Centre although Oman was among the 28 countries put on alert earlier in the day.
"Oman borders the Indian Ocean thus it was included among the countries under threat but none of it will reach Oman or UAE," the professor at the SQU told Gulf News.
Much before the tsunami warning was lifted, Al Hussain stressed that there was no possibilities of the tsunami reaching the Omani shores. About the rain that drenched most parts of the Muscat late in the evening, he said that it was purely a coincidence.
"Weather has nothing to do with an earthquake. It is just circumstantial, " he added.
Despite Oman being put among the list of 28 countries under tsunami threat and rains in the evening, there was no panic seen among the residents. There was no unusual rush to supermarket to hoard commodities like in the past when warnings of cyclones had created panic in 2007 and 2010.
Meanwhile, the Directorate General of Meteorology and Air Navigation (DGMAN) in Oman called upon fishermen and seafarers to avoid going to the sea for next 12 hours, starting from today at 7pm.
