(Jamaica Gleaner) A leading expert at the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) has warned the Caribbean to be prepared for a tsunami.
This comes two years ahead of a planned installation of an early warning system for the region, which has an estimated 40 million people.
Wendy Watson-Wright, assistant director-general and executive secretary of the UNESCO-Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission (UNESCO-IOC), says the Indian Ocean Tsunami Early Warning System, coordinated through UNESCO-IOC, saved lives in that region following an 8.6 magnitude earthquake off northern Indonesia.
Although the United States has withdrawn from the UN body, which threatened to delay the introduction of an early warning system for the Caribbean, “emergency funds” have been diverted to the project, which is expected to be completed by 2014.
