"A tsunami travels very fast. The waves generated by the Chilean quake reached Japanese shores in just 24 hours, leaving 142 people dead or missing. Simple arithmetic shows that the tsunami raced a distance of about 17,000 km at 700 kph -- about the same speed as a jetliner. The latest tsunami, unleashed by a 9.0-magnitude temblor that occurred off Aceh Province on the Indonesian island of Sumatra, is estimated to have reached Sri Lanka in about two hours. The lesson is obvious: If residents and visitors had been properly warned, much of the tragedy would have been prevented...
Japan should do everything it can to help build a tsunami warning system in the Indian Ocean, one that extends from southern Asia all the way to eastern Africa. For now, though, efforts should be focused on emergency assistance, especially medical supplies and sanitation aid to prevent the spread of infectious diseases...
This is also the time to examine our own efforts to cope with future tsunamis. According to the government's Central Disaster Prevention Council, big earthquakes are likely to occur off the Pacific coast of central and western Japan (Tokai, Tonankai and Nankai regions). Such quakes, it says, will generate powerful tsunamis because, like the one Sunday, they will originate from tectonic movements in the seabed plates..."
Read the rest at
http://www.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/geted.pl5?ed20041229a1.htmGreat, moving crystal-clear writing on the tragedy from a Japanese paper!
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