Yesterday (2009/10/14) was World Disaster Reduction Day - did you know that?  I certainly had no clue.  The United Nations celebrated it by testing an early warning system put in place after the 2004 disaster. 18 participating countries around the Indian Ocean rim were "activated" with a surprise drill called “Exercise Indian Ocean Wave 09”.

Umoya being a supplier of VSAT & VoIP services for the local Disaster Management, CEO Peter Beretta, and Isaac Edwards, one of the Umoya tech team, got less sleep than they had planned.
 
"I was rudely awakened this morning at 02:30 by a call from the Disaster Management Centre at Tygerberg to say that the centre has been activated by a Tsunami warning.   I was not told that this was an exercise, but nevertheless it is important that we responded when called upon."

Isaac headed off into the night to sort out some simulated problems (and one real one!)  - Umoya being the first vendor to respond. 

This is a great exercise in preparing for 2010 emergencies and highlighted the need for one of the solutions Umoya is developing and introducing - uniti.

Good to know the tires have been kicked and that the wheels did not fall off!  Let's pray we never have to do it for real.