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ChinaMovieMagic
Joined: 02 Nov 2004
Posts: 2102
Location: YangShuo
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 Posted: Sun Jan 09, 2005 7:40 am Post subject: ThaiExperts knew/didn't warn Tsunami |
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http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=05/01/05/152213
Wednesday, January 5th, 2005
Tsunami Warning Systems: Why Didn't Scientists Notify the Press About the Impending Disaster?
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AMY GOODMAN: Finally, just underscoring this point you raise about Thailand that seismologists there registered the Sumatran earthquake soon after it took place. In fact, the Thai meteorological officials were attending a seminar when the news came in, though ultimately deciding not to issue a warning according to the Thai newspaper Nation reporting that the danger of a tsunami was discussed but the gathering decided not to issue a warning, an official explaining to the Nation, "if we issued a warning which would have led to evacuation and if nothing happened, what would happen then, business would be instantaneously affected. It would be beyond the meteorological department's ability to handle. We could go under if the tsunami didn't come." |
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Sheep-Goats
Joined: 16 Apr 2004
Posts: 527
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| Posted: Wed Jan 12, 2005 2:50 am Post subject: |
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No excuse for it, but to tell you the truth, even if they had told The Nation it woudln't have done any good. Those waves travel on the ocean sometimes at hundreds of miles an hour and there was no system in place to warn the people on the beaches and whatnot. In the states tsunami prone areas have loudspeakers on the beach that the police can yak through given a moment's notice -- without those people are basically screwed.
The only people who got any kind of a warning in time were people on Army and Navy bases, which are about as well equipped for that kind of communication as is possible these days. And even there people only had time to run up a hill or (as featured on the front page of the Bangkok Post a few days ago) to climb up a statue's pediment and hold onto the statue's legs.
What SE Asia lacks is a tsunami warning infastructure, and it lacks it at all but the meteorlogical level. |
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bluffer
Joined: 21 Dec 2004
Posts: 138
Location: Back in the real world.
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| Posted: Wed Jan 12, 2005 4:34 am Post subject: |
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| This was in The Nation about 2 days after it hit and I think the Chiang Mai online site, old news. |
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ChinaMovieMagic
Joined: 02 Nov 2004
Posts: 2102
Location: YangShuo
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| Posted: Wed Jan 12, 2005 7:30 am Post subject: |
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| if we issued a warning which would have led to evacuation and if nothing happened, what would happen then, business would be instantaneously affected. |
Reminds me of:
*in "Day After Tomorrow"---the US Vice President's business-friendly perspective in response to a warning of global-warming catastrophe
*Bush's "business-friendly" approach in breaking the Kyoto
global warming accords
*Bush's statement: "The US standard of living is non-negotiable."
As the song goes...
| Quote: |
"It's Nature's way of telling you...
Something's wrong..." |
An automated Tsunami early warning system can take the warning process out of the hands of (non-)decision-making humans primarily influenced by factors other than citizen safety.
After that...
...perhaps one for Global Warming...
...and another for Persistent Organic Pollutants... |
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KhunDom
Joined: 02 Oct 2004
Posts: 1
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| Posted: Sat Jan 15, 2005 12:43 pm Post subject: and then what happens? |
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| Sheep-Goats wrote: |
| In the states tsunami prone areas have loudspeakers on the beach that the police can yak through given a moment's notice -- without those people are basically screwed. |
And have you been there when there is a warning? No one takes any notice because they have heard too many false alarms in the past. Although I am a supporter, I think there has to be a lot of education to go with it and the realisation that it would only have reduced the death toll by about 5% (still worth it) and then only in the areas that could afford such a system. Education would have meant that when people saw the tide go way out they would have known what that meant and ran for their lives. |
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