Clinton urges investment in disaster early warning

[Rose Siding]

BONN (Reuters) - Former U.S. President Bill Clinton urged the world on Monday to invest in early warning systems to prevent the massive death and destruction seen in recent earthquakes, tsunamis and other natural disasters.

"Hazards are not disasters by definition. Hazards only become disasters when lives and livelihoods are swept away," Clinton said in a statement before the start of the International Early Warning Conference in Bonn on Monday.

"Making communities safer -- by better managing the risks of natural hazards -- must become a global priority."
.....
Clinton said the projects carried a price tag of $200 million -- a fraction of the $10 billion spent each year on humanitarian assistance.

"Early warning systems are the key ... they do save lives and livelihoods," he told the conference.

But he said highly sophisticated technology was meaningless if the signal did not reach those at risk or if they had not already been made aware of what to do when a siren sounded.

http://go.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=politicsNews&storyID=11654335&src=rss/ElectionCoverage

[RufusEarl]

1. The Big Dog

He does understand how to govern, wish we had him back!

[Minnesota Libra]

2. If Clinton had been in office when Katrina hit rebuilding would already...

.....be in progress. OMG, I miss the days when all we had to worry about was stained blue dresses.

[Javaman]

3. Ah but the days of Bills fiscal responsibility are long gone

and the money we could have used to establish an early warning system has long ago been washed away by the blood of thousands of innocent lives in Iraq.

I weep burning tears for our future.