Since the 1946 disaster there have been 15 tsunami in the Pacific, but only one was of any consequence. On November 4, 1952, an earthquake occurred under the sea off the Kamchatka Peninsula. At 17:07 that afternoon (Greenwich time) the shock was recorded by the seismograph alarm in Honolulu. The warning system immediately went into action. Within about an hour with the help of reports from seismic stations in Alaska, Arizona and California, the quake's epicenter was placed at 51 degrees North latitude and 158 degrees East longitude. While accounts of the progress of the tsunami came in from various points in the Pacific (Midway reported it was covered with nine feet of water), the Hawaiian station made its calculations and notified the military services and the police that the first big wave would arrive at Honolulu at 23:30 Greenwich time.

It turned out that the waves were not so high as in 1946. They hurled a cement barge against a freighter in Honolulu Harbor, knocked down telephone lines, marooned automobiles, flooded lawns, killed six cows. But not a single human life was lost, and property damage in the Hawaiian Islands did not exceed $800000. There is little doubt that the warning system saved lives and reduced the damage.

But it is plain that a warning system, however efficient, is not enough. In the vulnerable areas of the Pacific there should be restrictions against building homes on exposed coasts, or at least a requirement that they be either raised off the ground or anchored strongly against waves.