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Name
Nancy
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Profession
Question
Doctor Laura, thank you very much for giving us the opportunity to ask you questions.
I would like to know the state the survivors are in. How are the aid efforts reaching them? And are there enough doctors around?
Answer
This tsunami which has caused the loss of terribly huge amount of people will forever change the way we address the tsunami hazards. Our organization is not involved in the relief effort and so we don't have first hand knowledge on the relief effort. Our organization, however, is working very hard to insure that something like this never happens again. International organizations and the United States are already working together to implement a Tsunami warning system in the Indian Ocean.
Name
May
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Profession
Question
Is it possible for a tsunami to happen in other earthquake areas like Turkey and Iran, but originating from the sea, like the black sea or the mediterranean?
Answer
Yes, it is possible. The Mediterranean has a long history of destructive Tsunami. The first one occurred in around fourteen hundred BC in a city called Santorini in the Northern East of Crete. It was reported that 10,000 people died.
Name
Noaman
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Profession
Question
Dear Doctor, why wasn't there any warning to other countries about the tsunami beforehand? Are warning systems and security systems so expensive that it is not affordable to these countries?
How could Kenya and Somalia not be warned of this earlier?
Answer
The only Tsunami warning system in operation prior to December 26 was in the Pacific Ocean. There was no Tsunami warning system for Indian Ocean.
The Pacific warning center issued an information bulletin that a large earthquake had occurred in the Indian Ocean to governments in the Pacific but was unable to inform governments in the Indian Ocean because no government contacts were available for the Indian Ocean. They tried very hard to contact governments but were unsuccessful.
The Tsunami warning system requires earthquake monitoring and water level monitoring in real time, the data that is required for this was not available to the Pacific warning center, and therefore, they had no information that a destructive Tsunami had hit Srilanka and Thailand until they heard a Reuters news Bulletin four hours later that reported that deaths had occurred. In the last week, however, the Pacific warning center has taken steps to insure that this will not happen again by obtaining government contact information.
International organizations and the United States are working together to implement an Indian Ocean Tsunami warning system as soon as possible.
Name
Leila
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Profession
Question
Salam alykum Doctor. I was wondering, if we were to be notified that a tsunami will hit our country in a few hours, what should steps and precautions should we take to prepare ourselves?
Also, after being hit by a tsunami, what is the correct response in this emergency situation? What is the first thing a person should do?
Thank you very much.
Answer
There are several diagnostic characteristics of Tsunami if one of the following should occur, evacuate inland or to higher ground immediately:
1. If an earthquake occurs that is so strong that you cannot stand up and you are on the coast or on the beach, be aware that a Tsunami may follow
2. If the ocean recedes to reveal the ocean bottom, be aware that this is a Tsunami and the next wave will very soon flood coast lines
3. If you hear a roar like a train, this may be a sign that Tsunami waves are fast approaching
4. Tsunami waves attack for many hours and the first wave may not be the largest.
Name
Mera
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Profession
Question
Hello Doctor Laura. I read somewhere that Japan has an advanced system of predicting tsunamis before they happen. Is this possible? Can we predict before hand when a tsunami will happen, like by satellite? What can we learn from Japan in dealing with tsunamis and future preparations?
thanks.
Answer
Japan has an excellent warning system which is able to provide a warning within five minutes to its citizens in Japan. Hawaii in the United States also has a similar system. These systems warn citizens that a locally destructive Tsunami may have occurred. These warning systems require many monitoring instruments to detect and evaluate the earthquake immediately. For the Indian Ocean there is presently not enough data network to allow a warning to be issued within minutes. If this is a priority, our organization will work with them to implement such a system. Warnings for distant Tsunami which might cause destruction across the Indian Ocean appear to be possible using presently available data network, and the Pacific warning center is actively making effort to acquire the necessary data.
Name
zahra
- Indonesia
Profession
part time children english teacher
Question
First of all I'd like to thank you 4 being able to answer my question, may Allah bless u.
Although we're living in Java, we're now in a big condolences for our brother in Aceh, and hand in hand collecting aid to send there. Here, there is another news saying that another earthquake will happen and will hit us in Java. Would you please explain about it?
thank you very much.
Answer
Earthquakes are always occurring on the globe, already we have observed more than 100 earthquakes aftershocks from MN earthquakes but these have not caused Tsunamis. In fact most earthquakes do not cause destructive Tsunamis. From recorded history we know that destructive teletsunamis specifically have occurred only once or twice a century. So these are very infrequent events. The last time a destructive teletsunami occurred was in 1960 when an earthquake off of Chili, South America, caused deaths across the Pacific Ocean in Japan, 22 hours afterwards. In that instance, however, less than 10 thousands people died and most of the causalities were due to the earthquake shaking in Chili.
Name
Brian
- United States
Profession
Question
Hello,
I've been wondering whether or not it might have been possible to prevent the catastrophic number of deaths and damages that happened in Asia due to the tsunami and earthquake that recently happened there. What can governments in that region do to prevent something similar from happening in the future?
Thank you.
Answer
Already international organization and governments are working to solve this problem. And the development of a global Tsunami warning system that will include the Indian Ocean as well as the Caribbean and Mediterranean is being planned. In the Indian Ocean, India has already announced that it will be setting a warning system. For a successful warning system in the region it will require governments to work together to share data networks, and our organization is already working with them to achieve this.
Name
Sadia
- Pakistan
Profession
Question
Hi
My question is: if one is in the situation that a tsunami is coming head-on, what can one do to increase one's possibilities of survival? What could have the victims of the tsunami in Asia have done to protect themselves?
Answer
I think it is better to refer to a previous question related to the same issue.
It is very important for everyone to be aware of what Tsunami looks like so that if you witness one of the warning signs you will react immediately and evacuate. Please visit our website where safety information is available: www.tsunamiwave.info
Name
Mona
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Profession
Question
I read in an article recently that some of the western countries knew about the tsunami and did not warn the countries that would be affected.
Answer
The Pacific Tsunami warning center issued information in the Pacific that a large earthquake had occurred but a Tsunami would not be generated in the Pacific Ocean. The warning center did not know that a Tsunami had occurred until 4 hours later after it hit Sri lanka because they did not have monitoring data.
Name
Mareen
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Profession
Question
I found it strange that Australia was not affected although it is in the proximity, why is that? All the countries around it have been affected, what protected Australia in this case?
Answer
The answer to that is that Tsunami energy is very concentrated in direction. In this case very little Tsunami energy was directed towards the Southeastern coast of the Islands of Indonesia and Australia. The Tsunami energy was directed to the west and north towards Sri lanka and India.
Name
Tarek
-
Profession
Question
Will the rehabilitation and reconstructive efforts be solely the responsibility of the countries or will the international community and organizations involve theirselves significantly in this matter?
Answer
International organizations and countries around the world are already planning to make significant contribution of money and technology to implement a warning system for the Indian Ocean. The United Nations, International Strategy for Disaster Reduction and IOC are working together to coordinate the developments of a warning system immediately. The US Specific Tsunami Warning Center is already working to provide warning coverage in the interim.
Name
Ashraff
- United Kingdom
Profession
Student
Question
We hear many stories about USA having the knowldge of Tsunami day or two before it occured, They even managed to evacuate their troops from Diego Garcia. Is this a fact.
Thank you & God bless
Answer
That is not true. Earthquakes and Tsunamis cannot be predicted. We can only monitor the earth so when an earthquake occurs a warning center can analyze the earthquake to see whether a Tusnami might be generated and then provide that information to everyone. A warning system is essential if we want to be able to provide a warning immediately to nations because those communications protocols have to be in place beforehand. This was not the case last week.
Name
Editor
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Profession
Answer
Finally, we would like to thank Dr. Laura S. L. Kong for speaking to Islamonline viewers today, and we also thank all those who participated in this dialogue. We apologize for not being able to accommodate all the questions within the time allocated to this session. We request our readers to join us in the upcoming sessions.
