Tsunami shows lessons from 2004 disaster were ignored

Indonesia's promise to build a nationwide tsunami alert system comes 531 lives too late. That's the death toll from Monday's tsunami that hit the Indonesian island of Java. The number killed will undoubtedly rise. In addition, at least 270 people are missing and more than 35,000 have been displaced. The tsunami was triggered by a magnitude 7.7 undersea quake that created walls of water more than 6 feet high. The waves crashed into a 110-mile stretch of beach on the island.
Ironically, the area in the eye of the storm Monday was spared in 2004 when Indonesia was the hardest hit by a tsunami that swept through a dozen Indian Ocean nations. More than 200,000 were killed. Half the deaths occurred in the Aceh province of Sumatra island.
Java, on the other hand, was jolted by an earthquake in May that claimed 5,800 lives. And yet, the government failed to extend the alert system that now only covers Sumatra. Officials said the coverage was to be expanded by 2007.
But it isn't just the absence of the system that makes what happened Monday unacceptable. Government officials failed to issue a warning to the people of Java even though Indonesia received bulletins 45 minutes before the tsunami hit. Science and Technology Minister Kusmayanto Kadiman said the government did not want to cause unnecessary alarm.
No sirens, alarms
"If it [the tsunami] did not occur, what would have happened?" Kadiman told reporters in the nation's capital, Jakarta. He said there was no effective way to spread a warning without a system of sirens or alarms in place.
The earthquake which spawned the killer waves struck at 3:24 p.m. about 150 miles beneath the ocean floor, causing tall buildings to sway in Jakarta, hundreds of miles away. The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center and Japan's Meteorological Agency issued warnings about a possible tsunami. Jave was struck about an hour later.
After the 2004 disaster, world leaders bemoaned the fact that there is only one prevention center, in the Pacific, and the scientific community recommended that a seismic monitoring center be created in Asia. There also was talk of the need for such centers in the Atlantic Ocean, the Caribbean and the Mediterranean.
As Geophysicist Stuart Weinstein said in January 2005, about a month after the tsunami, "It's frustrating for us to learn about destructive waves from a wire report, as opposed to a tide gauge." Weinstein was lamenting the Indian Ocean's lack of tide gauges and other instruments that can help scientists detect tsunamis.
It was suggested at the time that a warning system could be in place in 18 months. Nineteen months have passed, and, sadly, news reports this week aren't about how well the system worked, but about the body count. That's criminal.
Indonesian officials said they intend to speed up plans for a nationwide warning system. The more than 500 deaths demand such action. Globally, there needs to be a concerted effort to act on the recommendations of the scientific community with regard to a worldwide warning system. Climate changes have increased the dangers of violent weather.