Say That Again

I was reading an article regarding the tsunami that hit Pangandaran, Indonesia. It reported the latest death toll at 341 with 230 people still unaccounted for. This area was spared by the tsunami in 2004 but the government still has not installed a warning system. It was planned to be completed in 2007, though. Too little, too late for the people killed in this event. Even though Indonesian officials were alerted by different agencies monitoring the after effects of earthquakes and the possibility of a tsunami, they did nothing. What made me really mad were some of the comments made by the government officials...

Science and Technology Minister Kusmayanto Kadiman said Indonesia received the bulletins 45 minutes before the tsunami hit but did not announce them because they did not want to cause unnecessary alarm.

"If it (the tsunami) did not occur, what would have happened?" he told reporters in Jakarta, noting that there was no effective way to spread a warning without a system of sirens or alarms in place.

Answering reporters' questions as to why no warning was issued on Monday, Vice President Jusuf Kalla claimed there was no need because most people had fled inland after the earthquake, fearing a tsunami.

"After the quake occurred, people ran to the hills ... so in actual fact there was a kind of natural early warning system," he said.

People interviewed in Pangandaran after the devastation said they did not feel any tremors and did not see any people fleeing into the hills before the tsunami hit. These officials need to stand up and admit that they really screwed up.