[Strategerist]

Indian Ocean tsunami are surprisingly rare. in the 1800s and early 1900s there were a couple a few feet high, apparently.

It's difficult to get people to spend money or worry about things that haven't happened in either their lifetime or their parent's lifetime, even when geologically you can show something has happened hundreds of times in the past 30,000 years or whatever.

[seacapn]

That's very true. I guess it goes back to the fact that it's tough to take a latent threat seriously. I worry about what will happen if the New Madrid fault in Missouri really springs to life. People in the area know that an earthquake is possible, but until a big one happens, nobody really takes the threat seriously.

There are now reports trickling in all the way from the Seychelles, Madagascar, Reunion and Mauritius islands of substantial damage. Burma seems to be imposing a partial media black-out. The reported death toll will probably climb for a couple of weeks.