India first in region to set up tsunami warning system

I'll believe it when I see it! The point this blog makes in almost each post is that a warning system is meaningless without a disaster management plan. Disaster management infrastructure is not nearly half as easy as setting up an early warning system. I see a lot of hand waving here; will the authorities listen to reason ?

India to set up tsunami warning system
By: Agencies
December 30, 2004

New Delhi: India became the first nation stricken by the Indian Ocean tsunami to decide to set up an early warning system, despite the expense and the fact that a tsunami may not occur for another 50 years or more.

Affected countries had no warning of Sunday’s devastating sea wave that killed over 80,000 people because tsunamis are rare in the area and are, therefore, not tracked.

However, a system to raise the alarm and save lives already covers much of the Pacific Ocean.

As the death toll has risen, so have calls for a warning system and India, which closely monitors other weather hitches like monsoons, said it would now set one up in response.

“India will have deep ocean assessment reporting systems to monitor any change in the deep ocean... data will be fed to a satellite which will provide real-time information on any change in ocean behaviour,” Science and Technology Minister Kapil Sibal told a news conference.

He said the system would cost around Rs 125 crore — one-eighth as much as a system considered by the government but ruled out because “India is not a Pacific country and it never had a history of tsunami”.

“No government thought of it... the last recorded tsunami has been in 1883.

It was not in the horizon of our thoughts. Besides, tsunamis are not seen in the ocean and these gain height only when they approach the shore,” he added.

Though the authorities knew of the earthquake that hit Sumatra at 6.29 am IST, they could not assess that it would cause tsunamis which hit the Indian coast after about 2.5 hours, he said.