US island base given warning (warning bulletins sent to Diego Garcia)

[kskiska]

Bulletins sent to Diego Garcia 'could have saved lives'

A British-owned American base on an island in the Indian Ocean received prior warning of the tsunami from the US, the Guardian has established.

Unlike countries devastated by the huge wave, the military base on Diego Garcia was alerted by America's tsunami warning centre on Hawaii in the Pacific .

The base - officially called the British Indian Ocean Territory and described by the American military as the "best-kept secret in the navy" - was warned because it is linked to the US Pacific Command, according to American officials.

(snip)

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. He did not know if American military personnel at the base alerted anyone else in the region to the danger.

more…
http://www.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,3604,1384943,00.html

[Just Me]

1. I sincerely wish that my suspicions were being proven wrong,...

,...rather than right.

I despise the neoconimperialists. I really do.

[Warpy]

2. The best warning system in the world

would only have warned the rich. Thailand knew there was a possible tsunami but failed to issue the warning to the tourist areas. Bad for business, I guess.

Most of the toll was on the north end of Sumatra, too close to the epicenter of that quake for a warning to do any good. People were probably picking themselves out of earthquake rubble when it struck.

The major loss of life was in villages up and down all those coastlines, poor fishing villages where radios are luxury items. There would have been no way they would have tuned in to hear the warning, not on what was a workday for most of them.

[Kagemusha]

5. Why guess, it's been reported as fact

As for the radios and stuff, the simple fact is, no one thought it was necessary. Not just the governments.

[bpilgrim]

3. why isn't that stuff considered NEWS and BROADCASTED on the teeVee

and RADIO :shrug:

peace

[Algorem]

4. lihop?

http://www.unknowncountry.com/diary/

[WannaJumpMyScooter]

6. Again... for the 10kth time... command structure, preparedness

and time factor...

90 minutes is not a lot of warning.

The pacific warning system which the news media is now in love with (of course they had no idea there was one last week) is based on a 4 hour minimum warning.

Sri Lanka had 90 minutes

Diego Garcia had 3 hours

[ally_sc]

14. not if a freakin wall of water...is coming it aint...eom

[leesa]

16. They don't have telephones?

[SoCalDem]

7. Why not just assume that every time there is an earthquake over a 6

...anyone living near a coast whose waters touch where the earthquake happened...evacuate a few miles inland for a few hours..

That would not be too hard.. Someone somewhere on the coast MUST have radio or TV..

It's a no brainer.. Even if SOME people fled, there would be less people killed..

[WannaJumpMyScooter]

9. You are probably right, if people would do that.

With the short time most of the victims would have had on this one, I would bet the death toll would be higher, since many people who survived by being indoors would be out in the streets trying to make high ground.

And, high ground is a long way off some places. Think about it.

[SoCalDem]

10. In the "fly-over" photos, even a few blocks inland could have

been the difference between life and death..All but the really infirm could manage to get 6 or 7 blocks inland in an hour or so.

I know that communication can be difficult, but these days almost EVERYONE has TV, radio, etc..or works somewhere that has one.

The really sad thing is that this is probably just one of the many cataclysms that happen from time to time, and probably will never happen again in our lifetimes..and by the next time, people will have forgotten about it, and will be vulnerable again.:(

[WannaJumpMyScooter]

11. You are right. Like I said in a post the day of the event... there are

no warning systems in NYC for tornados.... because there has not been one for 100years.
Kansas City does not have stampede watchers anymore.

You can't eliminate every threat or anticipate every disaster.

[Just Me]

13. Of course, we can't eliminate every threat. However,...

,...are we not obliged to engage in best efforts to warn?

Moreover, I sincerely believe that global communications are sufficiently well-developed that there is NO excuse for failing to try and get word out.

[WannaJumpMyScooter]

15. You are right, we are obligated to warn, but once again

use common sense.

It was not expected.
It would have been picked up on the undersea sonar nets, which are intended to keep an eye on submarine movements.
The contact would have been moving in all directions at 450mph, the people on watch would be unaware (most likely) there was an earthquake. Their first assumption would be a software error.
They would test everything
20-30 min gone. So is Indonesia
They would then call higher authority and notify them. They may or may not know about the quake by now. Saturday night in DC, Christmas Day. They would tell them to re-run the tests.
15 more minutes gone
Next call to National Command Authority/JCS
After discussion, they would call the State Department, who would have to discuss it themselves, find the proper undersecretary to make notifications, et cetera.
At the best, 30 minutes before they could call anyone

That leaves about 15 minutes or so to call.... who? The US Embassy at 7am on the Sunday after Christmas? The Prime Minister? Governors of states?
And how do they respond to a frantic call from someone in Washington? How would you?

see what I mean? You have to have systems in place, with contacts for these things. You just can't throw it on CNN or just start calling people.

[leesa]

17. Wow, can you rationalize! Did you write the script for the 9-11 failures?

[WannaJumpMyScooter]

19. No, I spent 25 years in the military and I know how things

really work.

[daleo]

18. Your speculations are interesting.

I tend to agree about the sonar, etc. (not from any background in the military, but I studied geophysics as an underground, and am generally aware of the physics and instrumentation involved).

There needs to be an actual inquiry, though, so that people can know what did happen and whether sufficient measures were made to warn populations. Furthermore, there needs to be a public discussion of just what the responsibilities of military and scientific personnel are in these cases - perhaps commercial and/or government news providers such as CNN or BBC as well. The pressure for this may become more intense if and when the level of U.S. tourist fatalities becomes clear.

We have to do more than use common sense - we have to have direct answers to direct questions.

[Thor_MN]

23. Problem is, how do you know what 'enough' is?

I was watching something on TV yesterday which stated that Hawaii's last evacuation cost an estimated $30 million dollars. I have no idea where they came up with that figure. When the wave hit, it was 10 inches high.

If you are evacuating, you may as well go up at least 150' feet in elevation. Depending on terrain, that could be miles.

The should be a warning system in place, but in pulling the trigger on a system that is used but once a decade, you will always have some misfires. How long would it take one to call every TV and Radio station in your area, and convince them that they should break into the current programming to warn of a natural disaster? If there isn't a system in place at the station, the most likely response is laughter.

[Theres-a]

24. Happy new year Buster!

[imenja]

8. kick

[daleo]

12. More revelations will leak out

I think there was probably a great deal of negligence and/or excessive concern with security in this tsunami warning or non-warning as the case may be. I can't believe the navy didn't hear several thousand cubic miles of water suddenly being displaced, through ship-borne or submarine sonar or hydrophones.

[rodeodance]

27. i hope so

[JNelson6563]

20. It was only brown folks that are poor, who cares?

sarcasm off

[WannaJumpMyScooter]

21. I know you are being sarcastic and all, but practically unreported

in the media here are 5k missing Americans.

If God killed more Americans by accident than ** could on purpose, that would make his inferiority complex go off the charts.

[Turley]

22. DG wasn't warned until after Sri Lanka hit, so much for conspiracy theorie

It looks like the fabled Diego Garcia warning, so much in vogue among conspiracy theorists, didn't happen until after Sri Lanka was hit HOURS after the initial quake. Oh well, so much for conspiracy theories. Wasn't so much of a super-secret warning after all, eh?

[Bo]

25. I thought countries were warned....

but decided to ignore the warnings. Bad for tourism.

[rodeodance]

26. this is surely not being discussed in the media!! (a bit a while ago-but

focus is on how good the USA people are.