December 31, 2004
Indian bureaucracy fumbled tsunami warningNews
One of the things that the 9/11 report brought home is that in major disasters, there are always early warnings from experts in the field.
The vaunted British-style bureaucracy in India responded with its usual alacrity to the incoming tsunami warnings:
[T]he top brass of the Indian Air Force knew their Nicobar Air base had been submerged a full hour before the waves struck the mainland coast…The Indian Meteorological Department knew of the earthquake within minutes. Its first fax went out two and half hours later, and was sent to the home of the previous government’s science and technology minister, rather than his successor… “[I]t was a Sunday. Time was taken by the officer to get ready and get into the car…”
“There have been four tsunamis in India in the last 100 years, and it is well-known that an earthquake of such a large magnitude generates a tsunami. There was no system in place.”… “A country that hopes to run the call centers of the world could not call its own people.”
It took time to get into the car? IIT kids broadcast large porn videos in under 30 minutes, and they couldn’t pick up the phone?
Welcome to the old new century.
manish on December 31, 2004 08:40 PM in News · T·r·a·c·k·b·a·c·k address · Direct link · Email post
From the didjital mailing:
"What angers me is that there WERE natural warning signs (fisherman were experiencing mackerel catches *20 times* normal, and scientists say this is a typical warning sign), and this WAS preventable (coastal mangrove forests, natural buffers for waves, have been destroyed to make room for tourism and cheap consumer shrimp)."