Two posts from Sri Lanka examine the role of SMS in alerting populations at risk in coastal areas of a tsunami. One, from the Editor of the country’s first SMS based news service JNW, speaks of his experience during a couple of hours on 12 September 2007 , when an earthquake off Indonesia triggered tsunami warnings across much of South – East Asia and South Asia.
The other, by Sanjana Hattotuwa (Senior Advisor to the ICT4Peace Foundation) asks pertinent questions on the real significance of SMS during such emergencies , and whether the hype lived up to reality.