Nithin Coca has written a great article on how the new Indian Ocean Tsunami Warning System (IOTWS) became fully operational finally in 2013. It coordinates efforts to detect and warn people around the world when the threat of a tsunami has occurred.
The story behind the Indian Ocean tsunami warning system
The Kernel / The Daily Dot
By Nithin Coca on November 29, 2015
It took nearly three hours for the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami, the deadliest natural disaster in human history, to travel from its epicenter near Sumatra, Indonesia, to the eastern coasts of India and Sri Lanka. By then, it had already devastated Phuket, Thailand; Banda Aceh, Indonesia; and India’s Andaman and Nicobar Islands—and was making international headlines.
It was 2004, well into the era of the Internet, mass communication, cellphones, and social networking, but for fishermen and villagers in southern India and Sri Lanka, it might as well have been 1904. Though warnings were sent to the Indian coast guard, there were no protocols for getting that lifesaving information to villages far from urban centers.
The tsunami hit with virtually no warning, killing more than 47,000 people in just those two countries. Across the Indian Ocean, the final estimated death toll was more than 220,000, nearly all of whom received absolutely no advance notice.
In the wake of the tragedy came a new drive for a tsunami warning system.
Continue reading the rest of the article here.
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