The third anniversary post on this blog summarized our major take-away from the
tragedy – that emergency notification protocols had not evolved over the years
to include the Associated Press, CNN, BBC, Reuters and other web-based and
satellite-enhanced media networks.
That
failure cost lives – perhaps hundreds of thousands of lives. For background,
please read our Third Anniversary post, which focused on the PBS televised
documentary, “The Wave That Shook the World.” We were critical of the decision
to rebroadcast the documentary in 2007 in its original early-2005 form, with no
evidence of enterprise to uncover lessons learned in the intervening three
years.
In the
Beginning
You’re
also invited to read our first post at this blog on January 2, 2005 to appreciate the underlying motivation to examine events and decisions at the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center between the earthquake detection and the arrival of the tsunami on shores both near and distant. Tsunami Lesson's subject could not have been more
urgent. The retelling of the horrible Indian Ocean tragedy 10 years later will
have relevance only if it includes the lessons that presumably have been
learned about communications and preparedness and the changes that hopefully were implemented to prepare for the next earth-shaking
wave.
