And how the country prepared for the disaster was questionable. There's a difference between tsunami which happens just outside Sri Lanka, (like what happened to Japan or Indonesia last time) or something which happens far away (like in Indonesia) which would come here after 3-4 hours. The bus service was stopped then and there, so how did people go to safety? If those buses were not on the road to move the people into safety then private bus licenses should be cancelled.
There should have been tall and safe structures in the walking distance around the beach. People should not have needed to travel for miles to get into safety. How government media, meteorology department reacted was poor. Sri Lanka was not prepared.
The difference from this time to last time was last time people were not aware of the danger and got killed but this time people were aware of the danger and reacted by themselves. Both times the officials were weak and ineffective.
If tsunami had come there would have been very few deaths but people would have nothing to live on after the disaster. As usual aid would have gone to the rich and powerful.