Tsunami Warning System

[kasi]

.............

Edited December 28, 2004 by kasi

[bmanly]

There is a team of seismologists based in Hawaii and they knew there were going to be tsunamis but they did not know who to tell. This was reported on Australian TV. It is a ###### disgrace that they knew but failed to get the message out. How hard would it have been to phone up the Thai Government and get a warning out at Phuket?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Please read the ###### newspapers, before you start another blind rant about how this is all America's fault:

Please read the other article entitled "Warnings rejected to protect tourism" as well as the editorial of today's Nation, you moron.

Kat where on earth do you think I am starting a "blind rant about how this is all America's fault"? I am merely quoting an official news source which I have just as much right to do as you have to call me a moron. If you have a problem with what was said or reported by the source then I suggest you take it up with the TV station at the following URL: www.seven.com.au/sunrise please don't shoot the messenger. Thank You.

Edited December 28, 2004 by bmanly

[lukamar]

The last Tsunami to hit Thailand was 300 years ago as one article and the TV quoted. That's 1 every 150 years. Only 7.3% of the Thai population is over 65, it's a once in a lifetime event at the worst, even if it happens more than once in our lifetime.

It would be nice to have an Indian Ocean Warning system; but there are more pressing things that Thailand and the rest of the countries that were affected need more desperately, like housing for those displaced, adequate medical services and infrastructures that have been destroyed.

It is easy for us as westerners to look at extras like a warning system as a necessity. I'm sure a lot of tourists that have been calling for a warning system have never even been in any locals household, Thai or other.

I think we would be hard pressed to convince natives in the effected countries who have lost their houses, family and all their worldly possessions of the pressing need for one. They would tell you they need water, food and shelter long before a warning system.

[Lioneric]

To my suprise Mr T is still more interested in winning his seat more then nearly 2,000 people die or missing in Thailand, yesterday in TV we can see Mr T is campaning on the street again.

[farang24]

Many of you are correct. Trying to point blame is positively incredulous. The same people who search for blame in every situation are the same people who are quick to pose unwarranted lawsuits in thwart of self blame or mother nature.

But, wouldn't it be nice for the defending Thai government to be able to say they were on top of this and did everything they could have to prevent these deaths. Perhaps the warnings would go unnoticed. Maybe it would have killed as many people, maybe a different kind of person like the ones who would rush to the beach to watch.

I am not saying the Thai government should be held responsible for every death that occurred. I just think that a warning with at least 5-10 minutes of time with a siren and a flashing light on a sign about tsunamis . Maybe even an announcement that the biggest quake of 40 years occurred 1 hour ago and possible waves MIGHT be expected. My guess is most intelligent people would have collected their belongings and walked away. Maybe one block, maybe 2, maybe to safety. Anything would have helped.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

That sounds reasonable enough to me.

[joebuzzard]

The Meteorological Department knew about the earthquake but failed to act out of fear for their jobs. They had issued a tsunami warning for another earthquake two years previous that came to nothing and were scolded for it. The responsibility/blame/credit for the death toll in this disaster lies solely at the top in this case - the person responsible for creating this atmosphere of greed and fear that caused the paralysis.

As for creating a warning system, the infrastructure is in place. There is a police force and a system of loudspeakers at temples, mosques and on trucks. There are lifeguards and a beach patrol. These can all be used when the time comes. All that is needed is for someone or some agency to be given the authority to receive the call and act on the information without fear for losing their jobs. All the USGS and the tsunami center needed was a phone number.

Not only could such an agency or person responsible be used to warn against tsunamis, it could be pressed into service to provide communication and warning against other disasters, like smoke from forest fires that impede navigation and cause health problems, typhoons, floods, terrorist action, etc.

[sting01]

The Meteorological Department knew about the earthquake but failed to act out of fear for their jobs. They had issued a tsunami warning for another earthquake two years previous that came to nothing and were scolded for it. The responsibility/blame/credit for the death toll in this disaster lies solely at the top in this case - the person responsible for creating this atmosphere of greed and fear that caused the paralysis.

As for creating a warning system, the infrastructure is in place. There is a police force and a system of loudspeakers at temples, mosques and on trucks. There are lifeguards and a beach patrol. These can all be used when the time comes. All that is needed is for someone or some agency to be given the authority to receive the call and act on the information without fear for losing their jobs. All the USGS and the tsunami center needed was a phone number.

Not only could such an agency or person responsible be used to warn against tsunamis, it could be pressed into service to provide communication and warning against other disasters, like smoke from forest fires that impede navigation and cause health problems, typhoons, floods, terrorist action, etc.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

that is the best post i haveever read about this catastrophe ... i totally and absolutely agree with ...

[joebuzzard]

From The Nation, Page A2

Belated govt warning lists danger signs

Published on December 29, 2004

After the South was struck by the previous day’s deadly tsunami, the Meteorological Department on Monday issued a belated 14-point warning for future seismic waves.

Here are some selected points that residents and tourists should acquaint themselves with:

-- If a tremor is felt, head directly away from the beach to higher ground without delay and without waiting for official warnings to be issued as tsunamis travel at high speeds.

-- In the event of underwater quakes in the Andaman Sea, be prepared for possible tsunamis.

-- If a sudden downsurge of water is observed, especially after a quake, evacuate to higher ground immediately.

-- If you’re on a boat, take the boat further away from the shore, where the waves will be smaller.

-- As the first tsunami may be followed by subsequent waves, stay away from the beach after the first one strikes.

-- Closely follow news disseminated by the government.

-- Avoid beachside constructions as they are at high risk.

-- Take part in tsunami evacuation drills [Writer’s note: The government has never conducted any such drills in the past].

-- Disseminate official information about the dangers of tsunamis [Writer’s note: The government has never done this either].

-- If a tsunami is small in one location, this does not necessarily mean it will be so everywhere.

Pravit Rojanaphruk

The Nation

[joebuzzard]

From The Nation,

PM says disaster management needs overhaul

Published on December 29, 2004

Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra yesterday derided the country’s lack of preparedness to cope with natural disasters, citing his own experience in the battered South on Sunday.

“I am the prime minister and I was at the scene, but I couldn’t relay my instructions to officials because of poor communications facilities,” he said.

He said he had learnt first-hand that the country has no adequate warning system in place, no back-up communications, no emergency power supplies and no contingency plan to coordinate relief measures.

“The tsunamis had already hit six southern provinces and local officials had failed to respond until I ordered them to,” he said.

“The system for disaster management must be overhauled, because bureaucrats have yet to learn how to lead when natural calamities occur.”

The military dispatched troops to rescue survivors but ranking officers stayed behind and failed to give clear commands to their subordinates, he said.

“I ordered the military to prepare body bags on Sunday night but no action was taken until late the following day,” he said.

“The Meteorology Department issued a vague warning, hyping up the aftershocks, which generated unwarranted fear that further complicated rescue efforts,” he said.

Piyanart Srivalo

The Nation

[taxexile]

from the uk telegraph online

We can supply them with fresh water. We can get them sticking plasters and body bags, and we can ring up the helplines and pledge our cash, and so we should.

But, as we contemplate the thousands of dead on the shores of the Indian Ocean, there is one thing the whole planet wants, and that we cannot supply. We all want someone to blame. Deep in our souls, we want to find some human factor in the disaster, in the way that our species has done since - well, since the Flood.

What was the cause of that first great inundation, back there in the Old Testament, the one that Noah rode out? Genesis is clear: "And God saw that the wickedness of man was very great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. And it repented the Lord that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him at his heart…"

And anyway, God sent a lot of rain.

If we can persuade ourselves that there is some divine justice in a terrifying flood, then we have the consolation of believing that man may be in some sense the author of his own misfortunes.

In this largely godless age, we have a more subtle interpretation of the relation between human excess and natural disaster. Our new high priests are the environmentalists and, when the icebergs calve early or the swallows fly the wrong way, it is they who cry woe and say that it is a judgment on us all, and our wicked ways; and that is why, in the case of a colossal undersea earthquake, you can sense the silent frustration of the told-you-so scientists.

Whatever you say about the slipping of tectonic plates on the sea-bed off Sumatra, it had nothing to do with global warming. It was not caused by decadent use of Right Guard, or George W Bush, or the flouting of the Kyoto Protocol, or inadequate enforcement of the Windows and Doors Regulation of April 2002.

There may now be six billion of us crawling over the crust of the Earth, but, when things move beneath that crust, we might as well not exist for all the difference we make.

And if the priests and the scientists have nothing useful to say on the matter, the same goes in spades for politicians and journalists. We yearn, with that immemorial human ache, to find someone to blame - but whom?

Pathetic efforts have been made already to blame the Americans, for failing to equip the littoral of the Indian Ocean with adequate tsunami sensors; and as ever, in the wake of some random and pitiless disaster, there are calls for some kind of preventive action against the next one.

A magnificent article in yesterday's Guardian argued that a chunk of the Canary Islands should be pre-emptively detonated, in case a landslip caused a tsunami to race across the Atlantic and destroy New York.

Well, perhaps this would indeed do more good than harm, and perhaps we should see whether there are any other suspect islands - Ibiza? - that could be usefully blown up; but it would do nothing, of course, to prevent further Indonesian earthquakes, and the same point could be made to those Euro-MPs now calling for the building of some Battlestar Galactica to fight off asteroids.

One can see that this is in the spirit of the hysterical precautionary principle that now bedevils our legislation, but it is mad. It may offend our species' sense of self-importance, but when a thunking great hunk of rock comes hurtling out of space, to splat this planet like an egg, it is time to admit gracefully that our number is up.

A long time ago, an English king made this point, in the very matter of waves. He sat on the beach and ordered the tide to withdraw. Canute was not a megalomaniac. He was just showing that there are some things that are beyond the scope of kings, or laws, or regulation.

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