Sometimes, I really hate the pointing of fingers by Americans…
Fatal lack of a warning system
DENVER (AP) — The catastrophic death toll in Asia caused by a massive tsunami might have been reduced had India and Sri Lanka been part of an international warning system designed to warn coastal communities about potentially deadly waves, scientists say.
Thousands of people were killed in India and Sri Lanks after being hit by walls of water triggered by a tremendous earthquake early Sunday off Sumatra.
The warning system is designed to alert nations that potentially destructive waves may hit their coastlines within three to 14 hours.
Scientists said seismic networks recorded Sunday’s massive earthquake, but without wave sensors in the region, there was no way to determine the direction a tsunami would travel.
A single wave station south of the earthquake’s epicenter registered tsunami activity less than 2 feet high heading south toward Australia, researchers said.
The international warning system was started in 1965, the year after tsunamis associated with a magnitude 9.2 temblor struck Alaska in 1964. It is administered by the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
Member states include all the major Pacific rim nations in North America, Asia and South America, was well as the Pacific islands, Australia and New Zealand. It also includes France, which has sovereignty over some Pacific islands, and Russia.
However, India and Sri Lanka are not members. “That’s because tsunamis are much less frequent in the Indian Ocean,” Charles McCreery, director of the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center near Honolulu, said.
“Unfortunately, we have no equipment here that can warn about tsunamis,” said Budi Waluyo, an official with Indonesia’s Meteorology and Geophysics Agency. “The instruments are very expensive and we don’t have money to buy them.”
Sunday’s waves also struck resort beaches on the west coast of the Thailand’s south peninsula, killing hundreds. Although Thailand belongs to the international tsunami warning network, its west coast does not have the system’s wave sensors mounted on ocean buoys.
The northern tip of the earthquake fault is located near the Andaman Islands, and tsunamis appear to have rushed eastward toward the Thai resort of Phuket on Sunday morning when the community was just stirring.
“They had no tidal gauges and they had no warning,” said Waverly Person, a geophysicist at the U.S. National Earthquake Information Center in Golden, Colorado, which monitors seismic activity worldwide. “There are no buoys in the Indian Ocean and that’s where this tsunami occurred.”
The tsunami was triggered by the most powerful earthquake recorded in the past 40 years.
The earthquake, whose magnitude was a staggering 9.0, unleashed walls of water more than two stories high to the west across the Bay of Bengal, slamming into coastal communities 1,600 kilometers (1,000 miles) away. Hours after the quake, Sumatra was struck by a series of powerful aftershocks.
Researchers say the earthquake broke on a fault line deep off the Sumatra coast, running north and south for about 600 miles or as far north as the Andaman and Nicobar islands between India and Mynamar.
“It’s a huge rupture,” said McCreery. “It’s conceivable that the sea floor deformed all the way along that rupture, and that’s what initiates tsunamis.”
Tsunamis as large and destructive as Sunday’s typically happen only a few times in a century.
A tsunami is not a single wave, but a series of traveling ocean waves generated by geological disturbances near or below the ocean floor. With nothing to stop them, these waves can race across the ocean like the crack of a bullwhip, gaining momentum over thousands of miles.
Most are triggered by large earthquakes but they can be caused by landslides, volcanoes and even meteor impacts.
The waves are generated when geologic forces displace sea water in the ocean basin. The bigger the earthquake, the more the Earth’s crust shifts and the more seawater begins to move.
Most tsunamis occur in the Pacific because the ocean basin is rimmed by the Ring of Fire, a long chain of the Earth’s most seismically active spots.
In a tsunami, waves typically radiate out in directions opposite from the seismic disturbance. In the case of the Sumatra quake, the seismic fault ran north to south beneath the ocean floor, while the tsunami waves shot out west and east.
Tsunamis are distinguished from normal coastal surf by their great length and speed. A single wave in a tsunami series might be 160 kilometers (100 miles) long and race across the ocean at 1,000 km/h (600 mph). When it approaches a coastline, the wave slows dramatically, but it also rises to great heights because the enormous volume of water piles up in shallow coastal bays.
And unlike surf, which is generated by wind and the gravitational tug of the moon and other celestial bodies, tsunamis do not break on the coastline every few seconds. Because of their size, it might take an hour for another one to arrive.
The warning system is designed to alert nations that potentially destructive waves may hit their coastlines within three to 14 hours.
look, the tsunami strike the island if Sri Lanka, more than 5000miles away, within 2 hours…. and you did not even detect or predicted that such a massive earthquake is going to strike! Whats the point of pointing fingers now? just send in the aid and shutup!
Have you guys watched Kong Fu Hustle by Stephan Chow?
well… if not, go watch it… I will not say that its a good show in all, but if you are just looking for a laugh, its well worth the $6.50.
and here is something for your
My father has a business in Sri Lanka, and my cousin is looking after it for him there.
My Grandma has gone over for a visit, and has been there got the past 3 months.
Waves hit the island, and I have not been able to contact them since. Phone, e-mail, SMS… all no use…
Although they live in Colombo, to the west coast of Sri Lanka. heard news that things are pretty bad, I hope the situation is not that bad. But when I read through the news, seems like Colombo is flat…
damn… I hop everything is ok….
BBC NEWS
Eyewitness: Sri Lanka tsunami
By Roland Buerk
BBC News, Sri Lanka
I’m in a town called Unawatuna, which is on the south coast of Sri Lanka.
We didn’t feel the earthquake here so there was no warning at all.
Then at about 1000 this morning our time a huge wave suddenly hit the beach.
We were still in bed in a ground floor room right on the beachfront when we suddenly heard some shouts from outside.
Then the water started coming under the door. Within a few seconds it was touching the window.
We very quickly scrambled to get out as the windows started to cave in and glass shattered everywhere.
We swam out of the room neck deep in water, forcing our way through the tables and chairs in the restaurant and up into a tree.
But within about 30 seconds that tree collapsed as well and we were thrust back into the water where we had to try and keep our heads above the water line.
We were swept along for a few hundred metres, trying to dodge the motorcycles, refrigerators, cars and other debris that were coming with us.
Finally, about 300m inshore, we managed to get hold of a pillar, which we held onto until the waters just gradually began to subside.
Little help
Other people though weren’t so lucky.
One elderly British gentleman was walking around in a state of shock. His wife had been swimming when the waves struck.
And a family has just walked past carrying a very small bundle with pale white feet poking out the bottom of it.
As they walked past, the teenage son, wearing an England football shirt said in a very matter of fact way “My brother is dead”.
Looking around it’s easy to see that this has caused incredible devastation here. There are cars in trees, buildings destroyed.
But it is impossible really to get an accurate picture of the number of casualties from where I am.
I haven’t looked around a great deal yet, and I certainly haven’t been inside the ruins of the hotel or other buildings, or joined in the digging.
But in one small area of one small village I have seen four bodies so far, including two Sri Lankans – an elderly lady and a young woman – and the Western boy who looked to be about five years old.
There are no kind of emergency services here, there are no helicopters thumping through the sky to come to save people.
It is a do-it-yourself rescue.
People are trying to go through the buildings and rescue those who might be trapped.
Most people have gone up onto higher ground, fearful of another tidal wave – rumours are that another one might be coming and people are trying to get up onto the hills.
There are no real medical services here either at the moment.
A call went round about 15 minutes ago for a doctor because a man’s pulse was getting weaker and weaker but there are no doctors here.
I think the death toll is likely to rise quite sharply as rescuers start to arrive, and bodies begin to be dug out.
Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/south_asia/4125581.stm
Published: 2004/12/26 06:52:20 GMT
© BBC MMIV
Sometimes, I find some consumers to be so so so STUPID!
They go to Japan, buy a Japan only product, comes back here, and demands for an English manual and driver…
hello? Stated CLEARLY that is a Japan ONLY product, and now you like that…
ever came across a consumer, bought a USA model, came to Singapore, plug into the socket, and it blew up… then complain to us and demand for compensation…
ARE YOU STUPID OR WHAT?!
give me your comments…
5pm
installed SCSI HDD, and within the next 5secs of power on… I see SMOKE! and its not coming from my mouth! Apparently the 80-68pin converter shorted the 12V to the HDD casing and caused a melt down.
6pm
called Pizza Hut for delivery, and they said have to wait for 1.5 hours. SO wanted to cancel and they offered me 20% if I collect it on my own, and can be done within the next 30mins. Agreed and was told to go to Jurong East Entertainement Center to collect, on the 2nd floor.
Suddenly remembered that I forgot to burn CS for sister, and spent another 15mins doing it.
6:15pm
CD done. cannot find car key. Found car key. left house immediately.
6:20pm
met one group of chee bye kia who insisted on taking the same lift when its already overload. and they stepped on my wife’s foot… WITHOUT saying sorry.
6:30PM
Almost reaching PIE… and I remembered that I FORGOT THE CD!
6:45PM
Reached JEC, ccb… car park full… look for lot.
6:50pm
Went into the building…. and the blardy escalator is faulty.
6:54pm
reach pizza hut and told them my order number…. reply was “sorry sir, we did not receive such an order”. Called the manager, and he finally figured out that the order went to Jurong East Sports Complex instead (irony isn’t it? Pizza Hut at a get healthy place…)
he offered me the pizza and same discount. And told me to write a complaint letter to his company as THIS IS NOT THE FIRST TIME!
7:30pm
reached home. Well well well… it took me 1.5hours after all….
AND MY SCSI IS DOWN! shit…
Here I was, taking a cab home after work…. once I got into the cab, a very very strong cheap perfume smell came right into my nose…. choking….
and the taxi driver commented about a young chinese girl just stepped out of his taxi… and he started saying “girls from China now a days are so daring. Young young only and they are selling their body. Just now that girl ah, in the cab made so many arrangements with customers to fuck her… and she is so young! I dun like China girls… and whats so good about them? armpit hair, bushy pussy, and they have some kind of attitude….”
next thing I know, we turned into the direction where the sun is facing him, and he pulled down his car’s sun shade….
and a couple of VCDs fell….
let me see…. “China dolls”…. “17岁的诱惑”… “性感中国妹妹”…. “Teen Hsu”…
nah beh….
