LACK of warning caused many needless deaths when the tsunami struck Indian Ocean coasts last month. But next time the problem may be too many warnings rather than too few: with more than one organisation intending to issue alerts, there is a risk that conflicting advice will cause confusion.
鈥淲hen it鈥檚 life and death, you want one authority, one system and one warning鈥�
While the UN is coordinating official plans for an international early warning system, a team of self-starters is setting up their own. Charlie Martin, a computer programmer from Colorado, has launched the 鈥渙pen tsunami alert system鈥�. His idea is to develop software that will scavenge seismic and oceanographic data from the internet in real time, calculate the tsunami risk, and then distribute warnings to individuals who have asked for them. He is recruiting volunteers () and using online discussion boards to thrash out the system鈥檚 design.
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鈥淚 welcome initiatives like this 鈥� new ways of thinking about and doing things,鈥� says Reid Basher, who heads the UN division responsible for promoting early warning systems. 鈥淏ut when you鈥檝e got life and death at stake, you鈥檝e got to know you can rely on the system giving the warning. You want one authority, one system and one warning.鈥� Martin agrees. Should OTAS turn out to be the one that works best, he says he鈥檇 be happy to hand over control. 鈥淎s an open-source project, it鈥檚 available to anyone.鈥�
