New Integrated Regional Tsunami Centre

[The_Eye_Of_Sauron]

NOWHERE !!!!

HURRAH !!....(so its all still same-same bureaucracy and we await the next tsunami)

...from CNN today

PHUKET, Thailand -- Government ministers from tsunami-ravaged Asian nations have failed to overcome their differences on which country should host a proposed early warning system in the Indian Ocean.

The two-day meeting finishing Saturday took place on the Thai island of Phuket alongside the coast that was hit by the December 26 tsunami that killed tens of thousands of people across 12 nations.

The gathering followed a United Nations conference earlier this month in Kobe, Japan, where delegates agreed on an action plan to reduce casualties and damage wrought by natural disasters.

The Indian Ocean has no safeguard against tsunamis, unlike the Pacific that is covered by a U.S.-based warning system.

Experts say such a network could have saved countless lives in last month's catastrophe.

But delegates from 57 countries struggled over where to base the center that would collect seismic and oceanographical data from nations on the Indian Ocean's rim and issue alerts to coastal areas in danger.

Thailand pushed hard to make a Bangkok-based disaster prevention center the hub, but faced opposition from India and Indonesia.

In the end, delegates eager to maintain broad support for the warning system and distribute responsibilities chose a decentralized network. Some officials argued that such a set-up would make better use of the capabilities in the region.

"It would not be entirely effective to have a single center do so many things," said Margareta Wahlstrom, special envoy of U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan. She added that there are "a number of institutions" around the Indian Ocean that could serve as smaller regional centers.

But there were concerns that a decentralized system could be unwieldy, leading to high rates of false alarms leading to unnecessary evacuations.

[Spee]

NOWHERE !!!!

HURRAH !!....(so its all still same-same bureaucracy and we await the next tsunami)

...from CNN today

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Your post really has me frosted ....

I can't believe you fall for this kind of propaganda from CNN!! They take any opportunity they can to bash any government program with the current adminstration, without doing the right thing and reporting the facts and letting people decide for themselves.

Exploitation of such a horrific disaster to further their own OP-ED agenda against the white house, is just another example of the journalistic plague, lack of conscience, and lack of ethics, that are fully infested within CNN.

This just goes to the old saying of "Believe none of what you hear and only half of what you see."

If you would have seen the BBC show on the Tsunami (see my other post on the topic), you would understand that the CNN claims are a complete falsehood.

In fact, the Hawaii-based tsunami warning center did react based upon the data gathered, and used it to create models which in turned showed the potential for the tsunami to have potential lethal impact to the east coast of Africa. It was their warning passed out via radio messages which allowed so many people to vacate the coastlines in these areas.

What needs to happen is to extend these capabilities into other parts of the world, and in light of what has taken place, I have no doubts that it will be done soon.

[aaaaaa]

Tsunami-hit tourism industry mulls rebound plan at Thai meeting

Asia - AFP

Mon, Jan 31, 2005

PHUKET, Thailand (AFP) - Tourism ministers, officials and experts gathered on the tsunami-hit Thai island of Phuket to hash out a response to the worst natural disaster to hit the global tourism industry.

The secretary general of the World Tourism Organisation, which held the event attended by 30 countries and a slew of international agencies, called for rapid assistance to tsunami-affected countries.

Francesco Frangialli said that while the industry had responded to repeated blows since the September 11, 2001 attacks in the United States, last month's tsunamis which left more than 283,000 dead, were in another league.

"It's an event of exceptional magnitude. In fact in the history of world tourism, it's the most important disaster that we've ever had, if we take into consideration the number of victims among tourists and people working in the industry," Frangialli said.

"But on the other hand, this takes place in the context of rapid growth in the sector," he said, reflecting a widely held view that tourism would be resilient and quickly bounce back despite the tragedy.

As a region, Southeast Asian nations generated 27.7 billion dollars in 2002 from tourism, with the ASEAN Tourism Association projecting arrivals to reach 50 million this year and surge to 56 million in 2006.

Harsh Varma, the World Tourism Organization's chief of technical cooperation, said the meeting needed to draft "practical, efficient and time-bound specific actions and outputs for affected destinations".

"This is not an ordinary crisis and this is not an ordinary meeting. The livelihoods of thousands of people depends on this industry. In fact, it is their future that is at stake here," he said.

"Therefore our action plan must not be limited to short-term activity... It must be sharp, focused and cover a range of strategies."

Ministers from tsunami-hit countries urged tourists to return amid complaints that holidaymakers had strong misperceptions about the damage, in part due to government travel advisories warning against travel to affected areas.

"The Maldives is still the paradise of the Indian Ocean. Please visit us -- that is the best way to contribute to the revival of our economy and our efforts at reconstruction," Maldives tourism minister Mustafa Lutfi told AFP.

Thamrin Bachri, Indonesia's deputy minister for capacity building and international relations, said it was business as usual in Indonesia.

"If we are talking about the impact of the tsunami, Indonesia has suffered a very big impact, but in terms of tourism, Aceh only receives 0.05 percent from national arrivals," he told AFP.

"That's why what we would like to say to tourists is: welcome to Indonesia, because travel to Indonesia is safe."

He said that government travel advisories had skewed perceptions of the damage, urging that they be kept "proportional".

Peter de Jong, president of the Pacific Asia Travel Association, Asia's top travel trade association, told delegates that small tourism operators were among the hardest hit in the industry.

"We want to plead their case and ensure that the government agencies assembled here make extraordinary efforts, simply because 90 percent of our industry is composed of small and medium-size enterprises," he said.

Tourism is a vital industry in most of the countries hardest-hit by the disaster, but particularly in Thailand, Indonesia, Sri Lanka, and the Maldives.

Thailand requested that the meeting be held on the palm-fringed island of Phuket, which suffered damage to some beaches, to highlight that most resorts remain operational here, although occupancy rates have plunged.

Thailand suffered the highest number of deaths of foreigners among affected countries, with 1,948 believed to be among the 5,393 confirmed killed in the kingdom.

[The_Eye_Of_Sauron]

So where's the warning nervecenter going to be or are they all just being difficult?

Indonesia "With us - because we lost most people"

Thailand "With us, because we were never colonized"

India "With us becuase we're the closest to being a SE Asian superpower"

Its national security for all of them. Its understandable. (Would an Indian warning centre accidentally 'forget' to tell Pakistan if a tsunami was about about to hit the Pakistani coast).

Spee this isn't about CNN. I'm sure the Hawaiians were creating perfect mathematical models of wave formations in the 2 hours before the tsunami stuck. Unfortunately Thai TV was busy showing uninterrupted Katoey game shows.

Anyway i'm sure all the "Tourism ministers, officials and experts" had an edifying time in Phuket for their boondoggle.

[Spee]

Spee this isn't about CNN.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Well ... maybe I misread it, but that is the way your post sounded. CNN misreported the facts and took their usual Monday-morning-quarterback pot-shots.

I'm sure the Hawaiians were creating perfect mathematical models of wave formations in the 2 hours before the tsunami stuck.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Again you are mistaken, if not sarcastic. This center and others like it, have geological sensors all over the world to monitor earthquakes and other geological disturbances.

When an earthquake occurs in a tidal region, the data is promptly loaded into their models to produce a tsunami profile model (where, when , how big, how fast, etc.)

They do these activities in real time 24x7x365. Their models are produced in near real time (i.e., with the exception of the latency for computer processing) based upon data being input from hundreds or thousands of sensing locations around the globe.

If and when their models indicate the risk of a tsunami, then they contact the appropriate agencies within the potentially affected countries.

This is what happened along the east coast of Africa, which did save hundreds if not thousands of lives.

The unfortunate part is that by the time these teams had turned the cranks on their models, the tsunamis had already struck several areas. This is what needs to be and can be corrected.

The models also prove useful in the forensic analysis. For example, the models indicate that in the immediate Indonesian areas, the tsunami hit with such force and so fast, that there was very little if any response time, even if a modern system was in place at the time.

{Situations like this happen all the time in the USA, for example, in places where tornados occur frequently. The weather forecast can predict when conditions for a tornado are likely. The doppler radar feedback can confirm the same. But if a Category 5 tornado drops out of the sky 50 feet from your house and you are in it, then there is very little than can be done. Unfortunately, this is what appears to have happened in some of the immediately affected areas.}

Unfortunately Thai TV was busy showing uninterrupted Katoey game shows.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

The information is passed along through emergency management agencies. If countries to not have the ability to interrupt normally scheduled radio and TV broadcasts, then this is a flaw in their current modus operandi.

So where's the warning nervecenter going to be or are they all just being difficult?

Indonesia "With us - because we lost most people"

Thailand "With us, because we were never colonized"

India "With us becuase we're the closest to being a SE Asian superpower"

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Where the nerve-center is located is relatively unimportant. What is important is getting the sensors into place, and establishing a means for emergency communications within these various countries.

Unfortunately, for very remote places like Indonesia, there is a strong militant movement to keep these people and places in the proverbial dark ages, and to resist many kinds of modern improvements.

In situations like these, there is no long term solution. Things like this will continue to happen. At least in places like Thailand, India and Sri Lanka, there is a willingness to accept change and install modern improvements.

[The_Moog]

PM Thaksin has said that Thailand's offer to host the HQ was declined.

It looks like the original source was on the right lines.

If there are several centres. Won't it all get confusing?

Too many cooks....

[Erwin1011]

don't forget. a "Fair" splitt of the revenue is absolutely required