The 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami revealed an urgent need for an adequate warning system. In his ten progress report, James Hookway of the WSJ writes, "The result, though far from perfect, shows that commitments to improving safety can bear fruit, experts say."
The new network is smaller than existing U.S. and Japanese-led tsunami warning systems in the Pacific. Still, “we’ve gone from no system at all on Dec. 26, 2004, to a coordinated Indian Ocean system,” Laura Kong, director of the Unesco/IOC-NOAA International Tsunami Center in Hawaii, told the WSJ.
Hookway describes progress of mulitnation cooperation on early warning among Australia, Thailand, India and Indonesia.
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Early warning