A tsunami alert system is taking shape around the Indian Ocean seven months after gargantuan waves killed more than 230,000 people, but making sure warnings reach impoverished coastal villages remains problematic, experts said, according to Reuters. Indian Ocean nations agreed at the end of a three-day meeting in Perth on Friday to plant dozens of high-tech seabed sensors and buoys around the Indian Ocean that would more accurately and quickly detect a tsunami than what is available today. The 100 delegates at the meeting also proposed setting up not just one but seven regional tsunami warning centres that would receive data from the ocean gauges, assess the risks, and warn 27 nations around the Indian Ocean rim. "The establishment of seismic and sea-level networks for the Indian Ocean and an agreement on how to deploy those, I believe, is a significant step forward," said Neville Smith, vice-chairman of the Intergovernmenal Coordination Group of the Indian Ocean Tsunami Warning System. But the weak link in the system is the "last mile" when disaster management officials cascade the warnings down to remote villages, where mobile phones and even televisions are scarce. "Countries are not paying sufficient attention to emergency procedures," said Patricio Bernal, head of the Paris-based Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission, which is spearheading the Indian Ocean system. "Delivery of warnings to populations is an issue that needs to be addressed by disaster managers." There were no warning systems at all when the strongest earthquake in at least 40 years triggered an unprecedented tsunami that is feared to have killed as many as 232,000 people in a dozen Indian Ocean nations and left more than a million homeless. --more 1921 Local Time 1621 GMT
