banda aceh northernshore 120604
Originally uploaded by abtmay.

Picture of Banda Aceh Northern Shore taken in Jun 04 (before Tsunami)

banda aceh northernshore 281204
Originally uploaded by abtmay.

Picture of Banda Aceh Nothern Shore taken on 28 Dec 04 (after Tsunami

Death toll approx 150,000. A sad start of 2005 for everyone....

For more info and pictures, click here.

According to ABC News, tsunami warning system could be built in the Indian Ocean in just a year and cost as little as $20 million.

But experts warn the high-tech network of sensors and buoys would be useless unless countries like Indonesia beef up communications links to the coastal communities that would be hit by giant waves.

Many coastal villages that bore the brunt of last month's earthquake and tsunami lack modern communication networks. Many don't even have telephones.

Among the dozen nations effected by the Dec. 26 earthquake and tsunami, only Indonesia received any warning from NOAA, and then only indirectly through Australia. Officials from the Pacific Ocean warning system put out an advisory to their members and attempted unsuccessfully to contact countries in the path of the tsunami.