Editorial
Tsunamis and early warning systems
Can we really outpace nature's fury?
Nature has always exercised an overwhelming presence in our lives. And for all our efforts to tame it to our will, it has often--or almost always--demonstrated the sheer power with which it can leave lives destroyed or scattered into pieces. One would have thought the warning systems and the safety measures put in place after the Asian tsunami in 2004 would place victims of future tsunamis in less peril and would indeed help them stay many steps ahead of an approaching natural disaster. Well, if it is a question of serving warning of an impending tsunami or tidal wave hours before it strikes a coast, there is not much to worry about because enough time is there for people to move to safer locations. The risks to life arise when people have only minutes to evacuate their homes. It is then too late for them, for the waves outstrip them and end up taking their lives and destroying their homesteads.
And that sad lesson has just been learnt through the tsunami which struck Indonesia's Mentawai islands last week. A 10 ft. high wave struck the islands after an offshore earthquake, which means the inhabitants of the islands did not have any time on hand to move to safer places. Altogether 400 people, probably more, were killed by the waves. It only shows the inadequacy of warning systems. Could the offshore earthquake have been registered on the meters? Perhaps there is a clear need here for early warning systems to be equipped with more sophisticated means of detecting approaching disaster. Again, as reports would have us know, warning systems mean little when villages along a coast have no telephone system. And not all villagers may have radios to tune in to. Which takes us to the matter, already mooted by some, of teaching people to read the ways nature works through--guess what!--observing natural phenomena. By observing the sky and by keeping track of strange movements among the waves (such as a sudden receding of water along the shore), people might just be able to comprehend the risks before them and take appropriate means of survival. That again depends on the time they have in hand and the speed at which the waves might be moving.
Early warning systems might yet turn out to be a reasonable measure of guaranteeing safety. We may yet outpace nature's fury, if not exactly neutralise it. But what do we do when nature takes other forms, as sudden as they are violent and unpredictable? Again, it is Indonesia's misfortune we speak of. The eruption of the Mount Merapi volcano tells us again that there are aspects of nature we cannot truly tide over. Nature's paradoxes?
Our heart-felt condolences to the Indonesian people and government at their grievous losses and our sympathies are with the bereaved families.
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