Posted on 12/29/2004 12:57:49 AM PST by nickcarraway
end, it was about 90 helpless minutes between the earthquake in Indonesia and the waves hitting India - because critical technology was lacking - that made all the difference to those affected by Sunday's killer tsunami. In the aftermath of that crucial hour and a half, it's almost criminal to hear the government griping about the "high costs" of joining the tsunami warning system.
According to Charles McCreery, director of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's center in Honolulu, "Most of those people could have been saved if they had a tsunami warning system in place or tide gauges," he said. "And I think this will be a lesson to them," he said.
It's estimated that joining the tsunami warning system would cost around Rs 1,000 crore. While that does seem steep, contrasting that with the human and economic costs of the tsunami paints a different picture altogether - almost 11,000 priceless human lives, estimates of 30,000 missing, and millions displaced. The economic cost to business alone is estimated at Rs 2,000 crore.
TOI's report on Monday quoted the Union home secretary saying that lack of knowledge on the tsunami was to be blamed for the disaster, claiming it was the first time ever that tsunami had hit the Indian coast, obviously in ignorance of 27 November, 1945, when an earthquake south of Karachi caused 12-metre tsunami to crash into the Maharashtra and Gujarat coasts.
When you have a basketful of apples, you wouldn't feel that bad about one or two falling off. Perhaps the abundance of human life in India reduces their cost.
A couple of thoughts:
It seems when Christianity is introduced into a land it often is accompanied by a capitalist creed, a new window of opportunity--and a huge threat to the status quo of the brahmins who live off the paupers. It is no secret that India has very little use for Christianity and that the caste system there does little for its citizens' well-being.
That said, this reporter is fully indoctrinated into Government-as-Savior. Government indeed may be the only entity in such an impoverished country capable of mounting a major tsunami warning system...but not here in America. Yet we permit governmental bureaucrats here in the U.S. to do things that private industry could do better, faster and cheaper... Yes, there are laws and regulations that hamper private industry--we let them be implemented and we can act to undo these encroachments.
Even in the best free-market circumstances--or the most totalitarian serf-labor industrial regime' -- the impact of every Act of God like this cannot be by man forestalled. My prayers go to the many thousands of bereaved and terrified people of the Pacific Rim, may this Act of God bring them to a saving knowledge of Him.
Actually, I read that one of the reasons there was no tsunami warning system is that tsunamis had never been considered a likely threat in that part of the world. On the other hand, places like Hawaii (for example) have a long history of tsunamis and are aware of the need to get the warning out and to take it seriously when they receive it.
Note to all Ambassadors: This information is free of charge from a stingy American.
If each country had a few small airplanes that flew at about 2500 ft above the water with a siren blaring, up and down the coast prior to a Tsunami actually hitting the shore, that would be enough of a warning to tell the coastline residents to get back from the shoreline.
This method wouldn't require elctricity or permanent stations and could be heard at least a mile in from the water. Just tone the siren so it sounds totally different than any other emergency siren in your country.
"Perhaps the abundance of human life in India reduces their cost"
The imputed cost of a human life is a calculation that goes on every day here in the United States (and the rest of the world). For example, it is well known that the accident rate on a divided 4-lane highway is much less than a two-lane highway.
So, why do two-lane highways exist? because the cost of building 4-lane highways to replace two-lane highways is too great for society to bear in most cases at single point in time.
Therefore, you can derive the imputed cost of a human life by comparing the accident rate of a stretch of highway to the cost of adding a lane or couple of lanes.
What they really want, it seems, is for someone else to bear the cost of a Tsunami warning system for them, which proves that that to those governments in Asia, human life is worthless.
There might not be enough time to get the planes up after the quake, and it's pretty difficult to predict the size of the tsunami; however, that said, you have a much better warning idea than what they had... which is approximately nothing.
Not difficult:
Consisting of an Internet connection that any news station could operate, monitoring at least three websites for earthquakes.
The fault lines are known.
Indeed, it seems there is quite a lot of information that would indicate, given a fault line, what is the meaning of a certain size of quake.
That is, if a quake occurs on fault line x, and the quake is size n, issue a tornado watch.
Not difficult at all.
Thanks.
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