The tsunami (does it have a name, like Jason or anything?) is causing a lot of current crisis, but the future holds promise of more problems in the near future. The rush of seawater as much as 29 miles inland in some areas will salinate the soil, and almost certainly kill off the native flora. This salination wil probably take years to wash out.

In the meantime, all of the rotting vegetation, starving creatures, non-areable land will have as severe of an effect as the tsunami itself did. With the demise of the flora comes erosion, polution from rotting plnts, and the loss of the native vegetatin and/or crops will make many areas uninhabitable for quite some time.

Someone should start figuring out what kind of plants and crops that would help stabalize and support the area until the native plants can regrow. Somewhere there must be brackish plant growth to help maintain the soil which should now be planted. Such brackish plants would probably die off as the salination was washed away, allowing the natural flora to return at a maintainable rate.

The survivors need food and water today, but they'll also need it next year . And the next. My uneducated guess is that the bulk of the salinated areas will take ten or more years to detoxify.

If we're going to help them now, let's not leave them in a future dessert or salt basin. Let's see if the natives could live on and with what might resemble the Great Salt Lake areas of Utah in the very near future.

Without plant stabilization, the soil will run out to sea with every rain, probaly causing as much devatation to the area as they have already suffered.

Anyone have any idesas on how to prevent tomorrows crisis today?

Richh