Just; had argument with DH over Tsunami

[Dizzylizzy]

Can you believe it on New Years Eve, we have already had an argument.

He has only been in from work 10 minutes.

He says that the Americans couldn't have done anything.

I say they could.

What do you think? Shall I linch him

I think they could've alerted news agencies, as Lockets says. To have got people away from the coast - even if it was only people in the wealthier resort areas with access to media - that would've been at least some lives saved.

They could and they did alert their airforce base that was in the way on one of the smaller islands (its listed on another thread round here and on the BBC website) so they also had time to notify the further away places, although how much good it would have done, as they had no way of getting the info out (bar local tv and radio, would it have done any good?), without causing mass panic is anyones guess.

No point arguing about it. Maybe they could, maybe they couldn't. You don't know, he doesn't know. Whatever, it's happened now and one thing's for sure, you can't do anything except donate money for survivors. Really, this isn't worth a big argument IMO.

I know it isn't worth a big argument, its just that he is very opinionated and everything I say is wrong, but, when I think I am write if he starts trying to say I'm not its like a red rag to a bull.

Ah but it's New Year's Eve. Pour yourselves a drink and watch something on the telly!

don't know if there is anything good on tele, I know there is no Little Britain so might put that on dvd later, but for now staying on Mumsnet for a while whilst drinking martini

There is a tsunami warning centre in Hawaii that knew what was happening and kept quiet for 2 hours. My friend from Chicago said the excuse was that although the warning was out no one was paying attention as they were still enjoying Christmas.

Also there are plenty of US war ships in the vicinity, Colin Powell admitted that on tv the other night. They would surely notice something. Bet they were warned.

It's also worth looking at the US Geological Survey website . From there you will see that only a ocuple of days before the Asian tsunami there was an earthquake registering 8.1 on the richter scale, just off (1000km away) the coast of NZ. A tsunami warning was issued in that case but although one was recorded, it was only 20cm high when it hit the NZ coast. Those closest to the quake (22 Australian scientists and a bunch of penguins) slept through it.

The type of earthquake was different to the Asian one though, moving sideways rather than up/down.

I felt v strongly about the lack of warning before I read that stuff but now I feel I don't have sufficient information to mudsling. I do however get angry that the initial explanation for the lack of warning was 'We didn't know who to contact' which is undoubtedly pathetic.

Not worth rowing about though. It can't be changed now except to hope that those concerned have updated their address books. And since there are already warning systems in place for cyclones (men on bikes blowing whistles, I heard on the news) perhaps something similar can be implemented for tsunamis.

The Indian govt were also forewarned. They were told that their naval base in the Nicobar Islands had been destroyed by a tsunami but no one acted on the information in the two hours before it hit mainland India and Sri Lanka. But yes, what's done is done, tragically.