Consider: an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.
The USGS and NOAA knew of a seismic event of 8.0+ off the coast of Sumtra as it happened and a few hours before the waves strcuk. As I understand it, the word went out to authorities in the region. If the word had reached the cities on the coasts of India, Bangledesh, Sumatra, Thailand, and Sri Lanka in the intervening hours, hundreds of thousands of lives would have been saveed and this stupid argumant of how stingy the United States is wouldn't be happening.
I think if we warned them well in advance and the warnings would simply have been heeded, we were being extraordinarily generous where it counts and saving everybody millions, or even billions, of dollars in relief.
This is one taxpayer who thinks the world was given plenty long before the disaster hit.
"This is one taxpayer who thinks the world was given plenty long before the disaster hit."
And, another one!
And the problem is the corrupt authorities of the region. The UN feeds that problem with their own corruption which is one reason they are so chipped off over the Aid Coalition.
How many more will die because of those same governments and blame Bush instead no matter how much the American government and her citizens give?
It was pointed out on another thread that the MSM had the information. The MSM could have broadcast it on the TV which would have been picked up in the hotels. Now, they are blaming President Bush when they had the opportunity to warn people.
The USGS and NOAA knew of a seismic event of 8.0+ off the coast of Sumtra as it happened and a few hours before the waves strcuk.
1.5 hours is what I've seen(almost instant in quake area) These are third world countries and there is no tsunami warning system at all. I've read that the warnings were not sent out in Thailand because they didn't want to upset their tourist industry.How many would have heard a warning anyway?