Tsunami Catastrophe (December 2004)
Catastrophes as the recent tsunami in the Indian Ocean rarely occur. It was the largest one in nearly half a century, happening outside the Pacific Ocean where 90 percent of all tsunamis occur in the world. The event is so rare, that it was clear those affected were not fully conscious of what its full impact would be. Many just stood and stared, until it was too late. The earthquake-generated waves hit at least five nations: India, Sri Lanka, and Indonesia were the hardest hit. More than 130,000 are now dead, and the number is expected to increase. The uniqueness of the event was such that there were no systems in place to alarm those at the coastline. Where a person was physically located at the exact moment of impact, whether on a third story or immediately by the shoreline, determined whether some survived or became a mortuarial statistic. States have the uncanny ability to ignore single events in their planning, preferring to establish policy only by those events which are 'statistically significant'. Easter Islanders had the same attitude about trees, until it was too late.