Arthur C. Clarke regrets lack of tsunami warning system in Sri Lanka
COLOMBO, Sri Lanka (AP) - Sri Lanka's best known resident, science fiction writer and visionary Arthur C. Clarke, said Thursday he and his family were safe, but regretted the lack of a warning system in his adopted home of Sri Lanka.
Sunday's massive earthquake and tsunami killed at least 22,799 people in the South Asian nation and injured another 8,815, according to official tolls.
Some 4,059 remained missing and nearly 1 million people were homeless.
"I am enormously relieved that my family and household have escaped the ravages of the sea that suddenly invaded most parts of coastal Sri Lanka, leaving a trail of destruction,'' said Clarke, the author of "2001: A. Space Odyssey.''
Originally from Somerset, England, Clarke came to Sri Lanka, a small island country of 19 million people off India's southern tip, for underwater diving in 1954.
Two years later he made the tropical island his home.
"There is much to be done in both short and long terms for Sri Lanka to raise its head from this blow from the seas,'' said Clarke in an e-mail to friends seen by The Associated Press.
"Among other things, the country needs to improve its technical and communications facilities so that effective early warnings can help minimize losses in future disasters.''
Clarke said that in his first book on Sri Lanka he wrote about "about another tidal wave reaching the Galle harbor.''
Galle, in southern Sri Lanka, is the country's second largest town.
It was badly hit by Sunday's disaster.
Clarke predicted space travel before rockets were even tested and foretold computers wreaking havoc with modern life when modems and PCs were not household words.
His was the only prominent voice of dissent that Y2K would not destabilize the world of computers at the end of the millennium.
His "2001: A. Space Odyssey,'' loved by dreamers and scientists since it appeared as a novel and a movie in 1968, was just one of scores of fiction and nonfiction works produced in a career that began in 1959.
In 1997, he produced another best seller with the sequel to "2001'' - "3001: The Final Odyssey.''
Clarke said Sunday's tsunami damaged a diving school he runs and his two beach bungalows, but he reported no personal human loss.
"Many others were not so fortunate,'' he said. "After Christmas turned out to be a living nightmare.'' - AP
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