Laura Kong got the first phone call shortly after 3 p.m. on Christmas Day 2004. Colleagues from the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center (PTWC) informed her that a magnitude 8 earthquake had occurred somewhere in the eastern Indian Ocean. It is standard procedure for the team to call Kong--director of the International Tsunami Information Center (ITIC) in Honolulu, Hawaii--whenever there is a quake of magnitude 6.5 or larger.

An hour later, she got a call from Charles McCreery, director of PTWC. The earthquake was much larger and big enough to raise concerns about a ...

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