An effective warning system for such a natural disaster would quickly alert all residents in at-risk areas to move to higher ground.

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Krishna Vatsa, the UNDP's disaster-reduction adviser in South Asia, said the warning system would help reduce the number of deaths from a similar situation in the future.

CNN: Asian tsunami warning system: A last-mile challenge

At present, no one can predict a tsunami, but on board the German research vessel Sonne, scientists are installing a system that will give people warning if disaster strikes.

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Instead, they said, federal funds -- including disaster-preparedness money that was to have gone to the warning system -- were instead used to create local government jobs in an economy almost totally dependent on U.S. federal grants.

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