gallagher672003
New Member
What is/was needed in the indian ocean is a proper system to warn people of impending disaster.This would require more than a phone call to a country to tell them that a tsunami is on its way.
Firstly there would have to be a specific hotline to call so the said government can put into action its own plan of action.
From there they would have to alert the relevant internal agencies and in turn they would have to evacuate the population to high ground.
So lets say that the coastal regions had warning sirens for this purpose,there would still be a delay.People would be confused or panic,and the actual act of moving high volumes of people would take vital time.Roads would become clogged and movement restricted.Imagine how many more would have possibly died if they had left their hotels?!
Thats not to say that early warning would be useless,but the management of the information at the beginnig would be critical,and given how unlikely and unpredictable Sundays horror was its easy to see why these countries were so unprepared.
As has been pointed out elsewhere,a lot of these countries are not involved in the warning systems due to the high cost of such a venture. The United States has a Tsunami warning system in the Pacific to "protect American" interests,and I think its a shame that they never thought to perhaps protect the Indian Ocean of such phenomena. I wonder if it would have been any cheaper to install than the $180,000,000 in aid they have sent to Asia in response to the disaster.
Dont get me wrong,I'm not Singling out the Americans.I really think its time we ALL,as a race,started to work out the problems that face us and help each other. Prevention in stead of cure.The media ocassionally scares the hell out of us by telling us that theres a rogue asteroid that may hit us in 2019 or whenever and we all take it as a bit of a joke.But what do we do about it?
Earthquake,flood ,famine,disease,war,terrorism.....the list is endless and all we ever do is react after the fact.
What is needed is total cooperation on these matters,if only we could stop the squabbling between nations long enough to act.
But then again,if we cant get by on this forum without sniping then what chance the planet!!
Firstly there would have to be a specific hotline to call so the said government can put into action its own plan of action.
From there they would have to alert the relevant internal agencies and in turn they would have to evacuate the population to high ground.
So lets say that the coastal regions had warning sirens for this purpose,there would still be a delay.People would be confused or panic,and the actual act of moving high volumes of people would take vital time.Roads would become clogged and movement restricted.Imagine how many more would have possibly died if they had left their hotels?!
Thats not to say that early warning would be useless,but the management of the information at the beginnig would be critical,and given how unlikely and unpredictable Sundays horror was its easy to see why these countries were so unprepared.
As has been pointed out elsewhere,a lot of these countries are not involved in the warning systems due to the high cost of such a venture. The United States has a Tsunami warning system in the Pacific to "protect American" interests,and I think its a shame that they never thought to perhaps protect the Indian Ocean of such phenomena. I wonder if it would have been any cheaper to install than the $180,000,000 in aid they have sent to Asia in response to the disaster.
Dont get me wrong,I'm not Singling out the Americans.I really think its time we ALL,as a race,started to work out the problems that face us and help each other. Prevention in stead of cure.The media ocassionally scares the hell out of us by telling us that theres a rogue asteroid that may hit us in 2019 or whenever and we all take it as a bit of a joke.But what do we do about it?
Earthquake,flood ,famine,disease,war,terrorism.....the list is endless and all we ever do is react after the fact.
What is needed is total cooperation on these matters,if only we could stop the squabbling between nations long enough to act.
But then again,if we cant get by on this forum without sniping then what chance the planet!!
