What happened Dec 26, 04 (Big Wave in case ya aint heard) will probably go down as the principal catastrophe of my natural life, (Swift Boat Duty is personal so I won't go there) not counting our foray into Iraq.
I decided to follow a line of investigation on this to see what could be done about it.
I came across this........
(CBS/AP) A tsunami warning system could be built in the Indian Ocean in just a year and cost as little as $20 million, a scientist said Tuesday.
But experts warn the high-tech network of sensors and buoys would be useless unless countries like Indonesia beef up communications links to the coastal communities that would be hit by giant waves. Many coastal villages that bore the brunt of last month's earthquake and tsunami lack modern communication networks. Many don't even have telephones.
"There's no point in spending all the money on a fancy monitoring and a fancy analysis system unless we can make certain that the infrastructure for the broadcast system is there," said Phil McFadden, chief scientist at Geoscience Australia, which has been tasked with designing an Indian Ocean system by the Australian government.
"That's going to require a lot of work," he said. "If it's a tsunami, you've got to get it down to the last Joe on the beach. This is the stuff that is really very hard."
Well first of all I thought, $20 million is a small price to pay considering the USA alone has already forked out $350 million for the relief effort, not counting private donations. I also read that as of January 8, 2005, according to international media reports, international pledges for humanitarian relief efforts total more than $5 billion.
Ok, I had mentioned in a prior article that I flunked math but that was long before I had this calculator on my computer. Correct me if I am wrong here but let's see, you punch in $5,000,000,000, hit the minus key and punch in $$20,000,000, hit the = sign and it spits out $4,800,000,000 left over. You should be able to "beef up communications links to the coastal communities" a tad with that, don't ya think?
Alltel gave me my cell phone for free just for signing up and the service has been great. I am sure they could use the business and we could just sign all those people up in the coastal communities for the "Emergency Plan" they offer. We should have enough extra bucks left to put up a few towers in those "hard to reach areas" also.
What's that you say? They don't have electricity there to charge the batteries? I have worked out the details on that also. I still have a small generator in my garage collecting dust that my wife insisted we buy for that Y2K catastrophe (not to mention enough rice to feed a Viet Cong battalion) and it was only $400 bucks. Purchase one for each of those "coastal communities" and they can take their new phones to the "Central Charging Area" on a rotating basis to assure that there are always a few phones charged. Oh, I forgot to mention that before Y2K my wife also purchased enough canned vegetables to feed an Elephant until Y3K. I you read on you may find this is relevant.
Pay the extra $3.00 per month for "Caller ID" and they wont even have to learn how to answer the phones. If your unit rings and the display shows something like "1-800-RUN-FAST", head for the high ground.
Hell we even have a system in my hometown in case that Nuke plant six miles from my home ever melts down. It's as simple as a siren that goes off all over the area to warn us that we may lose all our hair and develop a few blisters in the immediate future. They even test it every Wednesday of the second week of the month at 11:00 am. I do get a bit worried every time they set it off that the "China Syndrome" didn't decide to show up at that hour and we just think it's a test. A few of those sirens on the beaches might have saved a few lives, huh?
I don't mean to make light of this tragedy but from what I have read the Tsunami alert centers knew as soon as that earthquake occurred that there was gonna be a problem. Phuket, Thailand, took a big hit with lots of casualties and the wave didn't get there for 2 hours. I am just a FUNV (fu.... Up Nam Vet) but I got on the internet and typed in "Phuket Hotels" in my "Goggle" search engine and I got hundreds if hits with phone numbers included. I am sure there are a few "Bilge Coolies" that have retired that would take a job at the hotel armed with a megaphone, and if the warning center just calls one of those numbers I found, all he has to do is go down to the beach and yell 1-800-RUN-FAST.
Anyway my neighbor, Mik4e, (I aint making this up, he says it's pronounced Mike, the 4 is silent) is shrewd beyond his years and he is older than dirt too, 64. My family knows Mik4e as "The Chief Potentate of the Divine Advisors". I decided to take a walk over to his house and request of him what he though about my brainstorm. I never know what to expect from Mik4e, but I always stagger away knowing that in some deformed fashion, he makes sense.
As usual, his retort befuddled me. "No need to fritter a dime away here Weedhopper", Mik4e said. He calls me that (Weedhopper) when dispensing his wisdom. I have three tsunami warring systems in my abode son, and have had them for years. "You do, I replied". "Why didn't you tell me"?
"I thought you knew my son. I found one on the side of the road and the other two, I got for free. I just had to pay for the shots."
Here he goes again, I thought. "Pay for the shots"? "What the hell are you talking about now", I asked. "You have one in your lap right now son", he said. "I call it "Eddie" and the other two are "Nelock" and "Bob". "That's a damn "CAT" I said". "Correct again Weedhopper." "Catastrophe Alert Technology or CAT for short. If I see their ears perk up and they head for the High Ground, so do I."
"I would also like to point out", Mik4e said, "You are the internet guru here. Did you check this out my son'?
"At the Khao Lak Elephant Trekking Centre, elephants Poker and Thandung started to panic -- trumpeting and breaking free from their chains. It was something their owner Jong Kit had never seen them do before".
"We couldn't stop the elephants," says Kit.
They ignored his commands to stop and ran for higher ground, just five minutes before the resort where they'd been standing was destroyed by the tsunami.
Kit believes the elephants knew the tsunami was coming.
Many experts say (and Mik4e) animals have senses that make them highly tuned to impending natural phenomena.
"We know they have better sense of hearing; they have better sense of sounds; they have better sense of sight," says Bill Karesh with the Wildlife Conservation Society. "And they're more reactive to those signals than we tend to be."
"You're the one that searched for Phuket Hotels Weedhopper" Mik4e said. "Did you check out this site? http://www.lagunabeach-resort.com/elephant.htm
I suggest you do son my son. They even have a picture of "Puggy" the elephant romping in the surf with some tourists. Forty pesos say, "Puggy" is alive and well and that good-looking chick in the blue bikini with "Puggy" aint.
"Check out this Reuters report son", Mik4e said.
COLOMBO - Sri Lankan wildlife officials are stunned -- the worst tsunami in memory has killed around 22,000 people along the Indian Ocean Island's coast, but they can't find any dead animals. "The strange thing is we haven't recorded any dead animals," H.D. Ratnayake, deputy director of the national Wildlife Department, told Reuters on Wednesday.
"No elephants are dead, not even a dead hare or rabbit," he added. "I think animals can sense disaster. They have a sixth sense. They know when things are happening."
Mik4e added, "Getting back to "Puggy" for a moment son, if you check further on that web site you will notice that "Puggy" must talk. There is another picture complete with a "Talk about myself" section and "Puggy" says, "When I am happy I make a sharp and chirping sound. If I get annoyed or angry I will make a low ramble. I can weep when I am in pain or great distress. I use my ears, tail and eyes when excited my eyes widen and tail straightens as a warning and I will roll my trunk when I want to attack."
Mik4e went on to tell me, "I would suggest Puggy add", "If I drop a load of dung on the beach and head for the High Ground, I suggest you follow me. Sumthin is cummin down".
"Also", Mik4e added, "did you see those tourists standing on the beach taking pictures when the water went out about 300 yards?" Well its been a long held theory by Sir Isaac Newton, later confirmed by Einstein and Steven Hawking, that if it goes out, it's gonna come back in REAL SOON. If you're on a beach anywhere when that happens I suggest film making aint the best selection you can make at the time.
"The last I checked Weedhopper, our fine city won't allow us to own an elephant and it would require a much larger litter box than my Cats, so I will just keep a special eye on Eddie, Nelock and Bob for now and if their ears perk up more than usual on the second Wednesday of every month, I am getting in my beat up old van and heading upwind, or for THE HIGH GROUND, so to speak".
Writers Note:
This article was not written in any way shape or form to "Make Light" of the tragedy. My point is that if we can collect billions of dollars to help the victims and we can spend billions of dollars to invade other countries, what might it be worth to save some lives before it happens again?
Sincerely
Joe Muharsky
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