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Re: Australian Government Tsunami donations
Originally Posted by Trevglas
The real cynical thing I heard tonight was the US gvt donation (now up to $45m US) is the same as what they spend in 5 hours in Iraq
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Re: Australian Government Tsunami donations
Anyone else spot this little snippet, hidden on a BBC web page......
The small Indian Ocean island of Diego Garcia - home to a US naval base - escaped unharmed as it was forewarned by the Pacific Tsunami Warning Centre in Hawaii. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/4134485.stm |
Re: Australian Government Tsunami donations
Originally Posted by Pollyana
Anyone else spot this little snippet, hidden on a BBC web page......
The small Indian Ocean island of Diego Garcia - home to a US naval base - escaped unharmed as it was forewarned by the Pacific Tsunami Warning Centre in Hawaii. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/4134485.stm Good on Mozambique though, nice to see they're really helping out - an impressive amount of a very poor country IMO. |
Re: Australian Government Tsunami donations
Originally Posted by Pollyana
Anyone else spot this little snippet, hidden on a BBC web page......
The small Indian Ocean island of Diego Garcia - home to a US naval base - escaped unharmed as it was forewarned by the Pacific Tsunami Warning Centre in Hawaii. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/4134485.stm Nice of them to let everyone else know! |
Re: Australian Government Tsunami donations
Originally Posted by Scossie
Hmmmm.....
Nice of them to let everyone else know! |
Re: Australian Government Tsunami donations
Originally Posted by Pollyana
My thoughts exactly. And its been kept nice and quiet too - the only mention of Diego Garcia, buried on a page in the Africa section of the BBC.
did u get my PM missus - I'm leaving in a minute, got no credit which is why I couldn't text!! |
Re: Australian Government Tsunami donations
Originally Posted by mlbonner
did u get my PM missus - I'm leaving in a minute, got no credit which is why I couldn't text!!
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Re: Australian Government Tsunami donations
Originally Posted by Pollyana
Yeah!! I'm here!! Ready and waiting! :beer:
cool - I'm leaving now, be there via the phone credit shop :D |
Re: Australian Government Tsunami donations
Funnily enough, on the news here in the USA they mentioned that a scientific body in Australia recorded the earthquake and informed the Australian government that there was a risk for tidal waves in Asia. The government then warned Australian missions in Asia, but decided not to inform the various governments because of the risk that the Asian governments could think that Australia was being too "big brother-ish" (or something to that effect).
Don't know if it's true or not though, as the quality of news here is shocking (way too sensationalist!!). |
Re: Australian Government Tsunami donations
Meanwhile, back on topic.....
some people have weird ideas - I've had no pressure to come home. I've not contacted them yet, but I will on New Year's Eve. Meanwhile he lies on a Thai beach supping a beer. Lets hope his family have the same attitude and aren't worrying about him...... http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/4135073.stm |
Re: Australian Government Tsunami donations
This is what the Pacific Tsunami Warning Centre in Honolulu seems to have said:
An alert centre in Hawaii that warns Pacific countries about approaching tsunamis had detected the earthquake that generated killer waves across Asia, but had no way of raising the alarm. The absence of an alert system in Asia meant the information could not be sent out fast enough to save any of the more than 23,000 lives that were lost in the catastrophe. "We did what we could to warn Asian nations of the likelihood of a tsunami," said Charles McCreery of the Pacific Tsunami Warning Centre in Honolulu, adding that the centre did not have direct contacts with Indian ocean nations. The centre, set up by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) in 1949 after a huge wave killed 159 people in Hawaii, tried desperately to warn Asian nations through US embassies in their capitals. "From our instruments we can detect any large earthquake in the Pacific, usually within two to three minutes of the occurrence of the earthquake, and warn any country that is threatened," he said. The centre issued a bulletin at 0114 GMT when it detected the temblor off the coast of Indonesia, but with no early warning system in place in Asia, scientists had no choice but to begin working their phones. |
Re: Australian Government Tsunami donations
Originally Posted by Scossie
Hmmmm.....
Nice of them to let everyone else know! Britain has now pledged 50 million GBPs. British charities have now raised over 20 million pounds which is probably what embarrassed the govenment into pledging more money. |
Re: Australian Government Tsunami donations
On the US forum, one poster said the United States is sending billions of dollars in equipment ie entire United States Navy battle group complete with aircraft carrier and escorts (destroyers and guided missile crusiers) to the region as well as their monetary donation.
I know the horse has bolted but it would be a good idea if the US or the United Nations set up a early warning centre like in Hawaii. It would be far better than spending loads of money on unpopular wars. Just one of the destroyer escorts could pay for several early warning centres. This disater should NEVER happen again. |
Re: Australian Government Tsunami donations
Phil McFadden, chief scientist of Geoscience Australia, said warnings without such training were useless.
. "If all you do is phone up the local police station, they don't know what to do," he said. "And in fact, one of the problems is that if you tell untrained people, 'Listen - there's a tsunami coming,' half of them go down to the beach to see what a tsunami looks like." No easy system to warn of disaster Share his dim view. Would like to think that films and documentaries played to the Aus public over the years would enable enough to recognise the symptoms - but I very much doubt it. |
Re: Australian Government Tsunami donations
I just heard on the TV news that the American people are deluded about the amount which is spent on international aid, thinking it's about 24% of GDP, when actually it's below 1%. Bush is also coming in for criticism as he didn't respond (commenting) to the emergency until 4 days later. The report went on to say that it would also be beneficial to the situation re. terrorism if the US responded quickly and won the battle for hearts and minds; Indonesia being a country with large numbers of muslim fundamentalists who could use the situation for their own advantage, recruiting the disposessed etc. Whether this is a real problem or just scare mongering will remain to be seen.
The same report also commended the UK government for the amount they have pledged (being the highest amount so far) and went on to say that UK donation centres etc. couldn't cope with the number of calls and websites were crashing due to the amount of people donating. I wonder if anyone has up-to-date amounts? |
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