Peter W. Meek wrote:

On Wed, 29 Dec 2004 06:21:29 GMT, WaIIy
wrote:

On Tue, 28 Dec 2004 22:06:32 GMT, Skip VerDuin
wrote:

Today I hear the US
(maybe USGS or NOAA) says "there was nothing we could do even
though we knew for hours it was going to happen" so maybe these
agencies need a swift kick to change an attitude.

What would you have them do?

The infrastructure to warn the people it affected is not in place.

Right. All that is needed to become part of the Pacific Rim
Tsunami warning system is to ask and TO SUPPLY A CONTACT PERSON
who is able to receive the warning and disseminate it. It's
free, but you have to ask, and you have to show you can make
use of the information. Pacific Rim knew about the quake, and
suspected the results, but had no one in the area to pass
the information to. (According to Wall St. Jour.)

One major resource not being tapped is the millions of cell phones in use in
these areas. Most of the world doesn't even use land lines anymore -- everyone
has a cell phone, and it's with them most of the time. All that would be
necessary to issue a warning is to call every cell phone within a certain area.
Pinpoint accuracy wouldn't be necessary -- just call the phones logged on to
certain areas of the network. Most phones will be GPS equipped soon anyway, so
warnings could be issued within a single city block, etc.

Many entrepreneurs have tried to start up such warning systems, but they've been
mostly ignored by government officials. I guess they don't have enough money to
get them to listen.

Matt O.