Ostracized Forecaster Predicted Tsunami (blames US)

[underpants]

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20050112/ap_on_sc/tsunami_weather_forecaster&cid=624&ncid=1112

BANGKOK, Thailand - Until two weeks ago, Smith Thammasaroj was a prophet without honor. As chief of Thailand's meteorological department in 1998, he was accused of scare-mongering when he warned that the country's southwest coast could face a deadly tsunami.

Less than a week after the tragedy, Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra appointed Smith as a vice minister and put him in charge of the newly established National Disaster Warning Office, which will work with seismologists to establish a tsunami early warning system.


Now when Smith speaks, people listen. And he has a new message: The United States must take some of the blame for the grievous number of casualties.

"I'm not angry at them for failing to warn Thailand, because at that time they did not know for sure, they merely said a tsunami was possible after the earthquake," Smith told The Associated Press in a telephone interview Tuesday.


But after the giant waves hit southern Thailand, the center had more than an hour to alert India, Bangladesh and the Maldives, "and if they warned those countries, they could have saved thousands of lives," he said.

[Cha]

1. Wow! Now the US is involved in not

warning about the impending tsunami?

[spinbaby]

3. NOT impending tsunami

Existing tsunami. He's complaining that AFTER the first countries were hit, other countries with an hour or more before the tsunamis were to arrive, were not warned.

[malaise]

7. Way more than an hour

in some cases. Kenya was the only country to evacuate the coast and they had one death and I read that they heard from live reports on cable.
How can any country expect others to help them prevent man-made or natural disasters when a lack of communication was allowed to kill so many people. All these people did not have to die.

[Cha]

11. And rightly so..I just didn't know the US

could have helped prevent more deaths. I had read that the Thai government was in trouble for not warning their people about it..for fear of losing the tourist trade.

[Briar]

15. But the US base at Diego Garcia was warned n/t

[AliciaKeyedUp]

27. It also had a clear line of authority

Who to talk with and all.

Look, if the world wants to build an INTERNATIONAL early warning system for tsunamis and other disasters, great. But don't expect the lack of a system to work at a moment's notice.

[nashville_brook]

2. sounds like the plot of a summer blockbuster movie -- next up

Deep Impact

[bunny planet]

4. this will no doubt add to our already spectacular popularity with the rest

of the people on the planet. This is just awful.

[The Backlash Cometh]

5. Now, see, that's the difference between a foreign country and the U.S.

This guy was promoted because the facts proved him right. But in the U.S., anyone who is right after the fact, is continued to be ignored. Think I'm wrong? Who is apologizing to Hans Blix over the WMD in Iraq? Nobody. HE said they weren't there, and whoa! they weren't. Will President Bush invite him to his coronation and give him a position of importance? Not a chance.

[underpants]

8. Blix and everyone else

We deserve an apology

[noonriser]

9. I'm the perfect example.

I knew there weren't WMDs in Iraq too, but I'm not invited to the coronation either. Sheeze! No respect....

[The Backlash Cometh]

13. I feel a bumper sticker moment:

What? No WMDs? I accept your apology

[Just Me]

23. Ostracized truth-tellers get their butts kicked here!!!

Right or wrong,...depending upon whether it serves the corporatists.

Although, I was very inspired by the Doc at the FDA who bravely took a stand. Doesn't mean he won't be retaliated against eventually though.

[The Backlash Cometh]

29. Think what this means. If you're honest and of good conscience, you

will not advance. Eventually we will get leaders who are devious, ruthless and unscrupulous.

[Eloriel]

6. Sadly, I think he's right

This should've been blasted from every U.S. media outlet immediately -- esp. CNN and CNN International -- and I'm sure we could've gotten more directly in touch with the other countries in the path, too.

Lives would have been saved. How many? Impossible to know.

[evolvenow]

26. Agree. It is a horror that media was not alerted. So many lives could have

been saved, just be being up higher, for a few minutes. Why was there so little concern?

http://www.melbourne.indymedia.org/news/2004/12/85534.php

The US military/CIA have many sea-bottom sensors in the Indian Ocean for detecting submarines, nuclear explosions, earthquakes and tsunamis, and must have known the tsunami was in progress but did not relay this info to those at risk because it was "CLASSIFIED".
(snip)

Do some Google, lots of sources of the timetable...

So much loss, so sad.








and

www.nytimes.com/2004/12/28/science/ 28warn.html?8br=&pagewanted=all&position=

[riverwalker]

10. "we didn't have their number in our address book"

was the quote from the observation post in Hawaii. Yet, they didn't call the media, or the wires. Those hotels all had access to CNN International, any warning would have been spread, they had hours to do it.

[joanski01]

12. I remember reading that report

about the US not having their number in the address book. I wondered why they didn't call the State Department, call the Embassies or Consultates in those countries, or anything? Sounds incompetent to me. But there seems to be a rule that if you are competent, you can't work in this administration.

[noamnety]

14. They didn't even need the embassy tel #'s

They can push it through the military computer system to all the embassies at once. If I know how to do that, surely they knew.

[NJGeek]

16. C'Mon now, are we responsible for everything?

Get a grip people. Our meteorlogical services announced the quake and the possibility of tsunami. Is it our fault these governments were not prepared to receive and act on that information? Has the "blame the US for everything" crowd taken over DU? I remember when there would be at least a few defensive posts like this.

[Leilani]

17. According to some, yes.

If you read the entire article, he also blames his own country for failing to act. He's been warning them for a long time, however they didn't want to hurt the tourist industry.

And as far as India goes, maybe they should take care of their people rather than having a nuclear weapons program.

If they can afford nukes, they can afford sensors.

Why isn't Japan being blamed? They're a hell of a lot closer.

I could go on, but I won't.

[NYC]

19. If they can afford nukes, they can afford health care.

Just a thought.

[Leilani]

24. I agree with you on that completely.

[underpants]

18. Actually the first two were

"on his watch" is a phrase you just don't hear anymore.

[ZR2]

20. I have to wonder why the US is responsible. Surely Thailand would

have warned India, Bangladesh and the Maldives. Or do they really expect for the US to be some kind of clearing house for tsunami information.

[Cessna Invesco Palin]

21. Oh for the love of pete.

Indonesia could and should have done something, too. However, I don't feel that it's apropriate to place blame on them. Blame needs to be spread liberally 'round the Indian Ocean governments equally for failing to do something about this problem for so long. You can't blame the US for failing to prevent a catastrope for which they have no reason to prepare in the first place.

[Reverend Smoothfield]

22. did anyone else see the earthquake on drudge, before the tsunami?

i was in england over xmas, jetlagged out of my brain. when my mother told me about the tsunami, on the morning of the 26th, i replied "well, i heard about the earthquake--8.9 on the richter scale, right?" but i couldn't remember where i'd heard it.

either i saw it on drudge when i was checking my email in the middle of the night, or i am some sort of psychic god before whom you should all probably kneel. i'm hoping for the former, obviously.

[JaneDoughnut]

25. Not completely unreasonable

It seems pretty clear at this point that there were SEVERAL agencies that could have given an advanced warning and didn't. But if the US bears even a portion of that blame, so do the governments in the affected areas. They cannot blame us and ignore their own responsibility.

Fortunately, it is not too late to learn a lesson from this and get a better warning system in place.

[Gman]

28. Damn right! If Bush gets the blame I'm all for it!

tax cuts caused budget cuts which made it impossible for the US to warn. It IS Bush's fault.

[daleo]

30. Someone could have at least called CNN

I mean, how tough is that. I think people were afraid to take responsibility. Maybe I would have been too. It has to be looked into. There should be an inquiry to determine what went wrong, and what to do in the future. There will be future events like this.

Think about how pointless ballistic missile defense seems, if a tsunami that takes hours in transit can't even have proper warning given.

[SKKY]

31. See, this is the kind of treatment you get from the world when they...

...think your president and his administration SUCK, SUCK, SUCK!!!!