In Pacific countries, I gather from the press coverage, there is in place already a tsunami warning system, because of previous experience. This earthquake happened in the Indian Ocean, where there hasn't been anywhere like so much seismic activity in recent decades as round the Pacific rim.

If there was a similar major disaster like this in Western Europe or the United States, the same would apply, noone is expecting it (apart perhaps from the US West Coast) and noone is ready for it. There appears to have been a failure to have contingency plans in place from the Canary Isles disaster in waiting mentioned earlier. Perhaps this may change as a consequence of this tragedy.
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About that insensitive headline I quoted - I can understand that people with tourist relatives in the area must have been very worried, but there are probably far larger number of people from immigrant backgrounds who have relatives who are resident in those countries, who must have been equally worried.