Decade since tsunami, UN envoy urges greater focus on cutting disaster risks

Published January 08, 2015

A decade since a tsunami killed 230,000 people in Southeast Asia, the United Nations' top official for dealing with natural disasters says the world must do more to prepare for extreme weather.

Margareta Wahlstrom, the special representative of the U.N. secretary-general for disaster risk reduction, says "something odd is going on" with wild weather noticeably increasing recently, bringing more risks.

A world conference next March in Japan will help set the next stage of preparedness beyond the early warning systems instituted since the tsunami.

Wahlstrom told The Associated Press on Tuesday the world is better prepared for calamities of the scale of the massive earthquake on Dec. 26, 2004 that triggered a 100-foot-high tsunami which spread death across a dozen countries. However, she says much more needs to be done.

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