U.S. could have warned countries devastated by tsunami 


The Guardian reports that "a British-owned American base on an island [Diego Garcia] in the Indian Ocean received prior warning of the tsunami" from America's tsunami warning center in Hawaii. 

According to the Guardian, "A spokesman for the US national weather service confirmed to the Guardian that the Hawaii centre, part of America's National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) had alerted the Diego Garcia base." Diego Garcia was given an hour's advance warning.

The Guardian quotes Professor Michel Chossudovsky of Ottawa University saying "the argument put forward by other experts that countries hit by the tsunami could not have been warned of the approaching waves because they had no sensors or special buoys in the Indian Ocean was a 'red herring'. We are not dealing with information based on ocean sensors. The emergency warning was transmitted in the immediate wake of the earthquake based on seismic data." He said "the information of an impending disaster could have been sent round the world in a matter of minutes, by email, by telephone, by fax, not to mention by satellite television." 

Posted: Friday - January 07, 2005 at 10:57 AM          

©