Educating residents of low-lying coastal areas about the warning signs of a tsunami (tremors and a sudden recession in the ocean), establishing a warning system involving emergency broadcasts, telephoned warnings, and air-raid-type sirens, and improving emergency response systems would have saved many who were killed by the Indian Ocean tsunami. At the same time, the cost would have been well below any reasonable estimate of the average losses that can be expected from tsunamis.
教育低海平面居民有关大海啸的警告迹象（震颤以及海洋突然退潮）、建立包括紧急广播、电话警告以及空袭警报那样的警报等警报系统，并且改善紧急应对体系将有可能挽救许多被印度洋大海啸夺去生命的人。与此同时，其成本也会远远低于大海啸引起的平均损失的合理估计。