Drink Up, Dreamers, You're Running Dry

Here comes the flood, indeed, especially if you're already one of the poor and screwed in the world. For as the Voice of America calmly tells us in its article on tsunami warning systems, which do exist in Japan and Hawaii:

Experts say if a warning system for the Indian Ocean had been in place, lives might have been saved.

Jan Egeland, the United Nations disaster relief coordinator, warns that installing a warning system will be a huge undertaking.

"The problem with the tsunamis is that it takes hours or minutes for this wall of water to come," said Jan Egeland. "There's just very little time. This is something we have to look into. I think it would be a massive undertaking to have a full-fledged tsunami warning system that would really be effective in many of these places."

Much of the affected region is poor and lacks the infrastructure for such a system.