Swedish churches in Bangkok, Melbourne and Los Angeles will in the future get tsunami warnings by mobile telephone and will therefore be among the first to know when such critical situations occur

Swedish churches in Bangkok, Melbourne and Los Angeles will in the future get tsunami warnings by mobile telephone and will therefore be among the first to know when such critical situations occur. "This is a way of making sure that we are even better prepared to be there for Swedes who will be affected by crises and emergencies while they are abroad," said Klas Hansson, director of the Church of Sweden Abroad.

Normally, there will be only two or three warnings a year that will reach the Uppsala-based Church of Sweden in this way. Tsunamis are ocean waves triggered by massive earthquakes like that with a 9.3 magnitude off Indonesia on December 9.6, 2004, which killed more than 200,000 people and left more than 1.5 million without homes or livelihoods. Places such as Bangkok, Melbourne and Los Angeles are considered to be at risk from tsunamis.

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