The discussion of early warning systems (EWS) for natural disasters has intensified toward the end of the IDNDR. The value of EWS for hazards with long warning times such as tsunamis, volcanic activities, and tornadoes is undisputed. There is an obvious lack of regional warning capacity for tsunamis, and by far not all volcanoes threatening urban centers are properly monitored. In the case of earthquakes, warning times are fairly small, ranging from seconds to a maximum of about one minute for Mexico City. However, even this small time window can provide opportunities to trigger measures automatically, such as the shutdown of computers, the rerouting of electrical power, the shutdown of disk drives, the shutdown of high-precision facilities, the shutdown of airport operations, the shutdown of manufacturing facilities, the stoppage of trains, the shutdown of high-energy facilities, the shutdown of gas distribution, the alerting of hospital operating rooms, the opening of...