Tsunami Warnings

Join Ricochet or renew and get 1 year
of National Review/Digital as a bonus!

Claire Berlinski, Ed. · April 11, 2012 at 2:38pm

The earthquake today is among other things a governance test. It's a bit too early to say, but it looks as if there's been a huge improvement in preparation throughout the Indian Ocean since 2004.

From what I can tell so far, sirens went off as they were supposed to. Warnings were issued promptly throughout the region. Evacuation took place promptly. People did exactly what they're supposed to do--they rushed away from the coastal areas as fast as possible. It looks as if Thailand, in particular, has vastly improved its preparation.

I don't want to be optimistic too soon, but I hope this means the world is getting better at preparing for these things.

Wouldn't that be good news?

***

Update: This video--not sure of its provenance--shows many people running parallel to the coast rather than away from it, which suggests there's still quite a bit of work to do.

Comment (4)
· Quote
· UnfollowFollow (1)
· Edit

Comments:

show Madcap's comment (#1) ←

Joined
Mar '12

Re: Tsunami Warnings

Madcap

I'm waiting to hear from my in-laws before I breathe a sigh of relief--the earthquake was felt in Kuala Lumpur and the country's government has issued a tsunami warning. My FIL will check with the family in Indonesia as well.

ETA: All the family is fine.

Edited on April 11, 2012 at 4:44pm

#1 ·
April 11, 2012 at 2:57pm ·
LikeUnlike (1) Like (1)
· Quote
· Flag
· Edit
·
· See in contextDirect link

→ show Mollie Hemingway, Ed.'s comment (#2)

Re: Tsunami Warnings

Mollie Hemingway, Ed.

Madcap: I'm waiting to hear from my in-laws before I breathe a sigh of relief--the earthquake was felt in Kuala Lumpur and the country's government has issued a tsunami warning. My FIL will check with the family in Indonesia as well.

ETA: All the family is fine. · _{2 hours ago}

Edited 5 minutes ago

Glad to hear it! I keep waiting for more updates on the earthquakes but they're hard to come by right now.

#2 ·
April 11, 2012 at 4:51pm ·
LikeUnlike (0) Like (0)
· Quote
· Edit
·
· See in contextDirect link

→ show Claire Berlinski, Ed.'s comment (#3)

Re: Tsunami Warnings

Claire Berlinski, Ed.

Glad to hear your family is fine, Madcap; I know the anxious feeling between hearing news like this and hearing that everyone's okay.

Mollie, I'm a bit surprised that updates are, as you say, hard to come by. I'm not sure what that means; it seems to me they should be better. That said, it sure looks so far as if many things that were supposed to work really worked. And that's great.