I remember reading Slashdot (roughly) 20 years ago, using lynx on a RS6000 terminal at college. At that time we had to compile stuff by ourselves to enjoy the internet... Slashdot was one of the few sites that didn't try to sell stuff to us. Wasted more hours reading stories here than attending math courses...

Here in Chile, everyone rushed to call their relatives when the earthquake came. The three main provides of GSM telephony collapsed, because of the huge number of people calling, oversaturating all the base stations. Also, the lights went off, and most towers shut down. Almost no one could place a call, and certainly not at the epicenter.

So I think that sat phones are a better idea for tsunami warnings.