PREVENTING DISASTER.

Discusses the importance of an early earning system to protect people from tsunamis. Focus on Phil Cummins, a seismologist in Australia who recently stumbled on evidence that a Sumatran tsunami was all but inevitable; Efforts by Cummins and others to establish a warning system for the Indian Ocean; Description of the evidence found by Cummins; Highlights from his career; Other tsunamis and earthquakes from recent history; Cummins' belief that there is still danger for tsunamis in the Indian Ocean; Description of how an early earning system would work. INSET: ADVANCE WARNING.