久久亚洲国产成人影院-久久亚洲国产的中文-久久亚洲国产高清-久久亚洲国产精品-亚洲图片偷拍自拍-亚洲图色视频

  Home>News Center>World
         
 

Tsunami warning system wins endorsement
(Agencies)
Updated: 2005-01-23 14:55

An early warning system would have made all the difference. Instead of being swept to their deaths by the Dec. 26 tsunami, tourists in Thailand and villagers in Sri Lanka could have been alerted to run for higher ground. Even Sumatrans near the epicenter might have recognized the danger posed by a coastal quake and dashed inland.

The global push to set up such a warning network for the Indian Ocean and beyond won wide endorsement and an injection of funding — US$8 million — at a U.N. conference on natural disasters that closed in Kobe, Japan, on Saturday with vows to never again be hit by such a calamity unprepared.

"All disaster-prone people deserve to have early warning systems, not just the Indian Ocean," said Jan Egeland, U.N. undersecretary general for humanitarian affairs. "The tsunami was the wake-up call for all of us."

The network — an extension of a decades-old system in the Pacific — was at the center of the five-day 168-nation World Conference of Disasters Reduction, which adopted a broad plan to cut the deaths and material losses from cyclones, earthquakes and other catastrophes.

Egeland set the ambitious goal of halving the number of such deaths, which he estimated to total between 500,000 and 750,000 over the past decade, during the next 10 years. The nonbinding plan, however, did not include numerical targets, disappointing health and anti-poverty activists.

"The targets at the beginning of this process (in March 2004) were very strong," said Ben Wisner, a hazard vulnerability specialist at the London School of Economics. "They have been tremendously watered down."

Despite the disagreements over the wider disaster reduction package, diplomats, development specialists, scientists, economists and aid workers at the conference were united in a determination to quickly cobble together a warning network capable of sending bulletins to member states.

The final success of the network, however, depends in large part on the abilities of member states to quickly distribute warnings to residents in potential disaster zones — something that would not be easy in the poor coastal villages that ring much of the Indian Ocean.

The chief model for the plan is the system now operating in the Pacific, centered in Honolulu, Hawaii, which gathers seismic and sea level and pressure data and issues tsunami alerts to 26 countries. The system, begun in 1965, will cover for the Indian Ocean while the new network is constructed.

The United Nations says a warning system in the Indian Ocean will cost roughly $30 million. About $8 million, enough to get the program off the ground, has already been pledged by Japan, Sweden, the European Union and others.

Experts agree that while such systems suffer from high false alarm rates and cannot always quickly forecast the size of a tsunami, they would have gone a long way toward limiting the devastation wrought in the Dec. 26 tragedy that killed between 157,000 and 221,000 people, according to varying government tallies.

"You'd have a way to detect the earthquake, detect the wave and forecast how high it's going to hit the coast," said Laura Kong, director of the International Tsunami Information Center in Honolulu. "It's very possible that the deaths we saw ... many of them would not have occurred."



 
  Today's Top News     Top World News
 

Embassy: Eight Chinese hostages freed in Iraq

 

   
 

8 Vietnamese robbers shot dead in China sea

 

   
 

Beijing tops overall competition list

 

   
 

No shift in foreign policy, Bush Sr. says

 

   
 

China to upgrade disaster warning systems

 

   
 

Britain backs EU in lifting arms ban

 

   
  Fugitive seen as link between 9/11, Madrid
   
  Iraqi group claims killing of foreign nationals
   
  Italy to hold regional elections
   
  Palestinian group ready to end violence
   
  Group reports killing 15 Iraqi guardsmen
   
  Terror tip involving Chinese seen as revenge
   
 
  Go to Another Section  
 
 
  Story Tools  
   
  Related Stories  
   
Tsunami survivor rescued after 25 days
   
Indonesia kills 120 rebels in devastated Aceh
   
Asian tsunami death toll tops 226,000
  News Talk  
  Are the Republicans exploiting the memory of 9/11?  
Advertisement
         
主站蜘蛛池模板: 亚洲第一毛片 | 国内精品久久影视 | 日韩视频久久 | 欧美 自拍 | 久久99一区 | 国产大片线上免费看 | 欧美肥婆videoxxx | 国内自拍小视频 | 国产99久久精品 | 亚洲欧洲日产国码一级毛片 | 伊人久久免费 | 精品国语_高清国语自产 | 免费高清在线爱做视频 | 99精品视频一区在线观看miya | 黄色美女视频网站 | 欧美高清免费一级在线 | 日韩欧美精品在线视频 | 草草在线观看视频 | 波多野结衣被强在线视频 | 国产一区二区三区视频 | 手机在线播放视频 | 国产三级香港三韩国三级 | 久久久久久综合对白国产 | 久久99国产亚洲高清观看韩国 | 一区二区在线看 | 97在线免费看视频 | 亚洲精品国产第一区二区三区 | 一级做a爱片特黄在线观看 一级做a爱片特黄在线观看免费看 | 国产一区二区免费播放 | 美国一级毛片不卡无毒 | 国产性生活视频 | 色伊人国产高清在线 | 亚洲激情黄色 | 最新亚洲国产有精品 | 色手机在线 | 91年精品国产福利线观看久久 | 又黄又湿又爽 | 超清首页 国产 亚洲 丝袜 | 综合欧美一区二区三区 | 成人a毛片免费视频观看 | 日本男人的天堂 |