theape - are you sure about that? How many did Krakatoa kill? The World is more populated - difficult to imagine that changing, or people not living by the sea, or tourists not going to sunny beaches - but so what, you adapt or die. This is the age of mass communication, many of the deaths were preventable - fact!
The warning system was non-existant. This talk about expense incurred setting one up, at the local level, is rubbish, IMO - because the Pacific Warning System (set up in 1965!) recorded the quake minutes after it occurred, and if they had had a few willing phone numbers to ring in the Indian Ocean countries, and those countries were even half-prepared for such an eventuality, how many do you think could have been saved by 'live' warning broadcasts on TV and radio?
Because this is the age of the mobile phone, it only takes half an hour maximum to get away from the flood zone in most places, and Sri Lanka was hit 4 hours after the earthquake. Many died because of the inadequacy of their governments - fact!
It takes a tragedy to embarrass short-sighted governments into taking any action. Yes, the next big Indian Ocean tsunami may not be for 150 years, but it also may be tomorrow. Do we really want politicians gambling with peoples' lives any more than is necessary now that they've seen what can happen?
And another thing - 35,000 died in an Iranian earthquake last Xmas - did the World have such an outpouring of grief then? No, the sad fact is that this has got such exposure because rich westerners got caught up in it. It's like AIDS - something only gets done when the rich countries get affected.
Rant over - going out now (in Thailand, it's not ALL misery here!) :0)
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