A lot of work has been put into the detection of disasters before they strike and have great numbers of casualties. The United Nations have also looked into warning systems to give people a chance to take shelter before the disaster hits. With something like a hurricane, you have plenty of time to watch it develop, predict its path, and send out the appropriate warnings. With a disaster such as an earthquake or tsunami you have very little time to detect them and send out warnings. Such was the case in the 2004 Indian Ocean Earthquake, which ranked a 9.1 on the Richter scale and created a huge tsunami that devastated Indonesia and the surrounding countries (2004 Earthquake).

 The huge waves caused the death of over 180,000 people and have raised a lot of concern about warning systems in that part of the world (2004 Earthquake). There were a couple hours from the time the earthquake occurred and the tsunami struck land, but there was no warning system so thousands of people were on the beaches when the wave hit. Many countries have since taken initiative and look into the development of early warning systems.

The IEWP or International Early Warning Programme was first developed in 2003 but has increased importance in the wake of the 2004 tsunami (IEWP). The UN met in 2005 to address the issue of having early warning systems in place for any type of disaster which led to the establishment of the Indian Ocean Tsunami Warning System.  The World Metrological reported that 90% of all natural disaster was caused by dangerous weather and water (IEWP). They aim to save thousands of lives by detecting these disasters early and alerting the public of them before it’s too late (IEWP).

There has also been a lot of debate on how much capital the government should spend on the rebuilding of a community after a natural disaster.  The US alone spends an average of 54 billion dollars each year on natural disaster relief and that does not include hurricane Katrina which cost over 100 billion (Vulnerable to Natural Disasters). Even after all this money is spent however there are still many items that haven’t been addressed or fixed. So the question is, how much is too much for the US and insurance companies to pay before the funding is pulled? This will remain a major issue in US government, especially with the national debt being as large as it is. So if the funding is limited what will happen to these communities that get destroyed, would New Orleans get rebuilt again? With the mad rush of people towards the coastline and with the rising property cost the casualties and expense is only going to rise. So the future response to natural disasters and the amount of funding provided for them will be something to keep an eye on in the future.