Tsunami victims to sue US Government.

Tsunami victims to sue US Government.

all i can say is WTF?!?

Austrian, German tsunami victims to sue U.S. warning center

Wednesday, February 16, 2005 at 07:11 JST
VIENNA — Fourteen Austrian and five German victims of the Dec 26 tsunami catastrophe in the Indian Ocean intend to file suit against a U.S. tsunami warning center, the Thai government and a French hotel chain for suspected negligence, their lawyers said Tuesday.

American lawyer Ed Fagan and two Austrian lawyers accused the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Pacific Tsunami Warning Center in Hawaii of having failed to act on registering the quake, Thailand of not having put out an advance warning despite knowledge of the impending disaster, and the Accor Hotel, the parent company of the Sofitel hotel in Thailand's Khao Lak resort, for its insufficient safety measures.

"We found that serious lapses were committed," said Herwig Hasslacher, one of the lawyers.

They said the suit was not, at present, designed to demand compensation but to uncover evidence that would prove negligence.

The case was presented as the first of its kind arising out of the disaster, when a powerful undersea earthquake off the Indonesian island of Sumatra sent huge waves pounding into coastlines around the Indian Ocean.

Nearly 290,000 people died, including several thousand Western tourists who were holidaying in Indian Ocean resorts, notably in Thailand and Sri Lanka.

The NOAA is accused of having registered the earthquake but failed to alert Indian Ocean countries of the impending tsunamis as the Hawaii center covered only the Pacific.

The lawyers said that if the NOAA and Thai authorities, which had their own information, had passed on their alerts in time, it would have enabled people on shorelines to flee inland.

"We have evidence they did not warn us, even though they knew a quarter of an hour later about the strength and location of the quake, and although there is supposed to be a tsunami warning" from 6.5 on the Richter scale, Hasslacher said. The quake measured 9.

"The U.S. government claims 'we are the protectors of the world.' But if we know there is a tsunami on its way to wipe out a major population, do we tell them?" asked Fagan. "Nobody telling them it's coming. This is incredible!"

Fagan said precautions were, however, taken to evacuate U.S. military personnel from the Diego Garcia base in the Indian Ocean.

Accor is named in the lawsuit because the plaintiffs say the chain did not properly inform relatives of the victims after the disaster and had built its Sofitel hotel, in the Thai resort of Khao Lak, on a quake fracture line.

Fagan told the news conference he would ask the U.S. court this week, probably Thursday or Friday, to ensure the preservation of key documents needed for the case, such as satellite imagery and contacts between the NOAA, Thailand and Indonesia.

"At the end of the day, it's quite possible it will show that nobody did anything wrong," Fagan said.

"But people want to know, even if they (their relatives) had no choice," said Fagan, who has filed class-action suits on behalf of Holocaust victims to receive compensation in Germany and other European countries. (Wire reports)

that is interesting to say the least...

talk about backfire

what a bunch of a-holes! they're lucky to be alive and now they want to sue

yay for silly shit. I will take a quote from a solder in iraq

" countries think America can fix everything, but we can't "

Wtf

fuck them and their stupid tsunami.

sorry we cant be responsible for everything that happens. Specially considering the money the American people have donated to help out. We need to stop helping everyone else because their own gov. should be doing that for them.

Fuck them. If they want advanced warning they can get there own fucking earth-quake-o-meter and figure it out them selfs. Seems like you can sue anyone these days for stupid shit. I'm going to get a lawyer and sue my neighbor for not telling me there dog was going to take a shit on my lawn. I mean they knew they gave the dog food and knew the approximate time frame he would be taking a dump so they should have warned me that he might shit on my lawn later in the day so I could stand outside and chase him away. We'll fuck it. Time to call up Johnny Cochran and file suite. God I hate lawyers. They are the filth of the fucking world and make more money finding holes in the law then enforcing it.

I agree with you 100% - except that you might have some trouble cause Johnny Cochran died yesterday.

OH GOD...hahahahahahahahahaha

some beach somewhere oj simpson is sobing

It could also be that these people who are supposed filing the claims were solicited by lawyers based in the USA. I remember a case about an airline related disaster, where the passengers on the plane were solicited by independent lawyers wanting to earn something extra by joining a class-action suit.

Now i don't know much about law fundamentals.. heh but this could be a possible reason the suit is taking place.

dude i was thinking that just as i read it.