5 Apr 2014
Ayer Keroh: Kementerian Sains,
Teknologi dan Inovasi (MOSTI) akan menjalankan kajian mengenai
peralatan lebih canggih yang dapat mengesan petir lebih awal.
Timbalan Menterinya, Datuk Dr Abu Bakar
Mohamad Diah, berkata pihaknya meminta institusi pendidikan membantu
menghantar kertas kerja penyelidikan bagi mencipta peralatan itu,
seterusnya dibiayai oleh kementerian.
Elak kejadian berulang
“Jika ia berjaya, MOSTI tiada
halangan membiayai dan mengkomersialkan produk ini untuk dipasang di
sekolah,” katanya ketika diminta mengulas saranan Ketua Menteri
Melaka, Datuk Seri Idris Haron supaya semua sekolah berasrama
dipasang sistem amaran keselamatan bagi mengelakkan kejadian dipanah
petir berulang.
Kelmarin, pelajar Tingkatan Satu Maktab
Rendah Sains MARA (MRSM) Ayer Paabas, Alor Gajah, Johan Jasmin, 13,
meninggal dunia selepas dipanah petir ketika berjalan di padang
sekolah itu, pada jam 6 petang pada Selasa lalu.
Pelajar berasal dari Shah Alam itu
disahkan meninggal dunia di wad Unit Rawatan Rapi (ICU) Hospital
Melaka.
No `fail-safe' lightning devices
Some suggest the money spent on
elaborate warning devices might be better spent educating the public
and buying inexpensive radios that can relay weather information.
"Protection from lightning is
really a combination of safety rules and common sense and being
willing to be inconvenienced," said John Jensenius, a
meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Gray, Maine.
Experts say lightning can strike either
before or after a thunderstorm, from up to 10 miles away.
A Thor Guard system can cost from
$5,500 for one school to more than $150,000 for a large city, said
company President Bob Dugan.
Thor Guard works by measuring changes
in the atmosphere's electrostatic field, Dugan said.
StormTracker, made by the Boltek Corp.
of Buffalo, N.Y., costs about $500 and is an add-on to a personal
computer. It detects lightning strikes up to 300 miles away and plots
them in real time on a map.
Dugan said Thor Guard's advantage is
that it does not depend on an actual lightning strike to provide
warning.
But Richard Kithil, president and chief
executive officer of the non-profit, Colorado-based National
Lightning Safety Institute, calls Thor Guard's claims "hogwash."
Prediction `impossible'
"Predicting lighting is
impossible," Kithil said. "It's a natural event. We can't
do that. Even the National Weather Service, with its million-dollar
[computer] sets cannot predict lightning."
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