7.2 Quake hits Indonisia! hundreds killed

I apologize for quoting myself but...

I wonder how many coastal towns on Earth are not prepared to broadcast such an alert among tourists and residents when there is a Tsunami warning?

For instance,

On November the 1st 1755, an earthquake, magnitude 8.7 close to Lisboa (Portugal) generated a tsunami... More than 70.000 people died.

Do you think they have a Tsunami Warning System?

And this is just a town where a tsunami happened before, what can we expect of towns or areas where tsunamis can hit but - as far as we know - a tsunami has never hit before? I do not think they even bother about it... I am sure they look to these news about Indonesia as something far away, not related with their towns...

I would like to find a "mapa mundi" (a map of Earth) where you can easily see all the coastal towns in danger of a tsunami... I am sure we would be surprised of seeing the areas in danger...

And then compare the data with those who have a real Tsunami Warning System...

It should be obligatory to inform citizens of these things in order to decide where to live or visit...

Ok. I might me asking too much.

The goverment knew about the tusnami but did not tell anyone, they thought that everyone would figure it out themselves.

Seems like some people didn't learn from the last tsunami. I heard that during this recent tsunami there were actually several people who went down to the beach after the water retracted from the shore and leaving live fish on the ground. People were curious and thought it was fun to look at all the funny fish. Everyone should know by now that when the water suddenly retracts from the shoreline it is a bad sign. It means that a tsunami could be imminent. I bet when the next tsunami happens the same scenario will happen again: "Ohhhh, look! The water is gone and there are lots of funny fish lying on the beach. Lets go have a look" :shk:

They have given two explainations for why the tsunami alert system didn't activate this time. First they said that "everyone" felt the earthquake and knew that a tsunami could come. So an alert was not necessary even though they were alerted by other countries at least 45 minutes before the tsunami hit. Then it turns out they were wrong about the magnitude on the earthquake. It was actually a Mag 7.7 but they thought at first it was "only" a Mag 5.5

Some updated numbers: 654 dead, 329 still missing...

I just got wind of this, another quake in the area.

www.news.com.au...

yep seems it was a 6,1,

they evacuated all sea areas,

www.alertnet.org...

I haven't seen this article here, but it's about mass graves to bury those people that died in the Tsunami. I don't know the credibility of the source? but the article is saying that they did not have a warning system in place, and thought it would be in place by 2008. That is such a bunch of bung! They knew... and decided not to warn the people.

torontosun.com...

It's hard to believe that people would go out on the beach where the water has just retracted to take a gander at the fish.... I'm sure it would be tempting, but not at the risk of dying!! I've often though it would be a blast if the Ocean drained for a few days.... Oh what you could find
I haven't heard my local news say one single word about this Tsunami....I guess theres no need to watch the news anymore.... ya have to go online to find it now Pathetic