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Remote Areas Challenge In Tsunami Alert System |
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The framework
of a worldwide tsunami warning system is already in place, but speeding
word to the most remote and vulnerable areas is the biggest challenge
ahead, experts said on Tuesday.
It is too early to project a cost and timescale for the
global warning system championed by U.N. Secretary-General
Kofi Annan, forecasting experts said at a meeting on the
problems of small island states. The alert system has taken
centre stage at the U.N. conference, held this week in the
Mauritian capital, since a Dec. 26 Indian Ocean tsunami
killed at least 156,000 people.
Thousands may have been spared had warning reached countries like
Sri Lanka, India, and Somalia before the wave struck. "What
is essential is the awareness at the ground level, and the ground
level is remote fishing villages and places like that," said
Walter Erdelen, head of the U.N. Educational, Scientific and Cultural
Organization's natural sciences unit.
Many areas lack
the communications infrastructure to receive a warning in time
to react, he told Reuters.Once the wires are in place, disaster
management agencies have to teach residents what to do when the
warning comes, Erdelen said.
The
United Nations has a global communications system that can be
used now for broadcasting tsunami alerts to the Indian Ocean and
elsewhere, said Michel Jarraud, head of the U.N.'s World Meteorological
Organization.
The region's existing cyclone warning system could also be adapted
easily for tsunamis, he said.
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