The "what can one expect?" tone of this news item from the Hindustan Times is infuriating and sad :
Lanka’s tsunami sensor not repaired since 2003How many thousands could have simply walked away from the low-laying shoreline areas in two hours and survived?The tsunami-warning equipment gifted to Sri Lankan by Japan had been out of order since August 2003, and the authorities had not bothered to repair it, says disaster management expert Dr Ranijth Premalal De Silva.
"Sri Lanka does not need new equipment. It already has the necessary equipment at the University of Peradeniya in Kandy, gifted by the Japan International Cooperation Agency. But the equipment had broken down in August 2003, and not repaired since then. A power failure had corrupted the software. But this could have been set right in a week's time. That, alas, was not done," he said.
Dr De Silva told Hindustan Times that Sri Lanka could have got two to two- and-a-half hour's warning if the equipment was working.
A related item; this Tsunami photo gallery page from Matichon, a Bangkok news/media company provides local coverage and a glimpse of the overwhelming recovery/rebuilding task ahead. (text in Thai characters)
Which makes this item from Hindrocket all the more disgusting:
A first-hand report from one of the diplomats at Diplomad:Posted by feste at January 8, 2005 08:11 AM | TrackBackThis Embassy has been running 24/7 since the December 26 earthquake and tsunami. Along with my colleagues, I've spent the past several days dealing non-stop with various aspects of the relief effort in this tsunami-affected country. That work, unfortunately, has brought ever-increasing contact with the growing UN presence in this capital; in fact, we've found that to avoid running into the UN, we must go out to where the quake and tsunami actually hit. As we come up on two weeks since the disaster struck, the UN is still not to be seen where it counts -- except when holding well-staged press events. Ah, yes, but the luxury hotels are full of UN assessment teams and visiting big shots from New York, Geneva, and Vienna. The city sees a steady procession of UN Mercedes sedans and top-of-the-line SUV's -- a fully decked out Toyota Landcruiser is the UN vehicle of choice; it doesn't seem that concerns about "global warming" and preserving your tax dollars run too deep among the UNocrats.
Sitting VERY late for two consecutive nights in interminable meetings with UN reps, hearing them go on about "taking the lead coordination role," pledges, and the impending arrival of this or that UN big shot or assessment/coordination team, for the millionth time I realized that if not for Australia and America almost nobody in the tsunami-affected areas would have survived more than a few days. If we had waited for the UNocrats to get their act coordinated, the already massive death toll would have become astronomical. But, fortunately, thanks to "retrograde racist war-mongers " such as John Howard and George W. Bush, as we sat in air conditioned meeting rooms with these UNocrats, young Australians and Americans were at that moment "coordinating" without the UN and saving the lives of tens-of-thousands of people.