A community initiative to provide early warnings to a single disaster, such as a tsunami disaster, can
grow into a bridge that connects the national disaster management to the coastal city that is at risk. This
case study uses the fable of the boy who cried wolf to describe the components of an alerting system by
analyzing the hazard, the community, and the communication mechanism. Finally, case describes one such initiative, the Community Tsunami Early-warning Centre of Peraliya, Sri Lanka.