Now, that adequate help was pledged for and actually provided to the countries stricken with the tsunami, the major bottleneck to prevention of further deaths and hardships is logistical.
Other disasters of similar magnitude, which happened during recent years, were localized in a relatively small region. So the logistical issue was not a significant factor. The tsunami disaster is affecting several communities all around the Indian Ocean. Several of those communities are in hard to reach geographical areas.
For example, in several places, the most important unavailable items, which stand between recovery and further deaths, are water purification tablets and medications against plagues.
This leads to the idea that to prepare for future disasters of this kind of geographical dispersion, rescue teams should equip themselves also with fleets of pilotless cargo airplanes. At time of need, those airplanes would be launched from a mother ship and carry their cargo to the far corners of the disaster area. They would then drop the cargo off and return to the ship. They would be equipped with GPS units and they would network with each other, so that they can autonomously spread over an area and distribute their cargo evenly over it. Each airplane would be capable of carrying 10Kg cargo and have range of 1000Km from the mother ship.
A fleet of 50,000 pilotless airplanes could have meant the difference between a minor logistical nuisance in the tsunami’s aftermath and a major headache for the rescue teams and the health systems of the countries involved.
