Indonesia tsunami claimed 1,350 lives: Why wasn't there an early warning?

The location of the tsunami may have made the destruction particularly acute, but the country's early warning system also appears not to have lived up to expectations

The recent earthquake and tsunami in Indonesia has claimed the lives of at least 1,350 people. Many more people are missing and the disaster has destroyed homes and businesses across the city of Palu and surrounding area on the island of Sulawesi.

Yet after the much larger tsunami that devastated countries around the Indian Ocean in 2004, Indonesia began installing a new early warning system to try to prevent such widespread destruction from happening again. So why is the country once again facing such a severe loss of life? The location of the tsunami may