Tsunami suit filedagainst forecasters

The December 26 tsunami that took over 275,000 lives may have been an act of God, but more than 60 European survivors of the deadly wave have filed suit in New York district court to determine if Thai authorities, U.S. forecasters and a French hotel chain were negligent.

U.S. attorney Edward Fagan, who has successfully fought against Swiss banks on behalf of Holocaust victims, is joined by two other attorneys representing plaintiffs from Austria, Germany, the Netherlands, Switzerland and France, reported Agence France-Presse.

Named in the suit are the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and its Hawaii-based Tsunami Warning Center, the government of Thailand and the French hotel chain Sofitel, part of the group Accor.

The plaintiffs accuse NOAA of not informing Indian Ocean nations of the tsunami even though the warning center was aware of the undersea quake. Thai authorities are accused of not releasing information about the impending sea surge as soon as they received it – a failure that plaintiffs claim was responsible for thousands of the deaths that occurred. The hotel chain is named in the suit because the plaintiffs say it knowingly built the Khao Lak Beach resort in Phuket on an earthquake fault and failed to properly inform relatives of victims of the disaster, as well as failing to repatriate some bodies.

"We found that serious lapses were committed," said Herwig Hasslacher, one of the group's three lawyers. "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, according to Hasslacher. The quake registered 9.0.

The present suit is not intended to demand compensation, but to uncover evidence that would prove negligence.

"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 U.S. lawyer Edward Fagan. "Nobody telling them it's coming. This is incredible!"

Fagan has asked the court to ensure the preservation of key documents, such as satellite imagery and communications between NOAA, Thailand and Indonesia.

The court is expected to set a hearing date within the next 30 days.

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