Tsunami centers to go on 24-hour alert
- From: "George" <george@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Fri, 06 Jan 2006 14:42:52 GMT
http://www.cnn.com/2006/TECH/science/01/05/seismic.alaska.ap/index.html
Thursday, January 5, 2006; Posted: 3:40 p.m. EST (20:40 GMT)
PALMER, Alaska (AP) -- When word of a big earthquake comes in the middle of
the night, geophysicist Bruce Turner takes five minutes to fumble for his
beeper, throw on a coat, scrape the ice off his windshield, drive a mile to
work and transmit a tsunami alert.
Those few minutes will no longer be wasted on commuting when the West Coast
and Alaska Tsunami Warning Center goes to round-the-clock staffing in
April.
A portion of $24 million appropriated by Congress in May to the National
Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration will allow 24-hour staffing, seven
days a week, at the nation's two tsunami warning centers, here and at Ewa
Beach, Hawaii -- near areas that have both experienced deadly tsunamis.
The government allocated the money in response to the earthquake and
tsunami in the Indian Ocean on December 26, 2004. At least 216,000 people
were killed or are missing in 11 Indian Ocean countries.
The federally mandated 24-hour staffing will shave off the few minutes it
might take scientists to get to the center to issue an alert, said Paul
Whitmore, director of the warning center in Alaska.
"Rather than responding from dead sleep, we'll already have people there,"
Whitmore said. "We're definitely better off this way."
Earthquake alerts roust scientists from bed several times a week, and all
staff members are required to live within five minutes from work. Tsunamis
can race across oceans at jetliner speed, meaning coastal communities near
an earthquake's epicenter must be prepared to evacuate within minutes.
The Alaska center registers about 400 to 500 earthquake alarms per year
from around the world and lets officials know whether those quakes could
displace enough water to trigger a dangerous tsunami.
Starting in April, at least two people will be in the center in Palmer,
about 40 miles northeast of Anchorage, at all times. It is now open 6:30
a.m. to 4:30 p.m. weekdays, Alaska time.
The staff will be increase from 61/2 positions to 15 to cover the
additional hours. Aside from overseeing Alaska, the West Coast and British
Columbia, the center will now be responsible for the Gulf of Mexico and the
Atlantic Coast, too.
In Hawaii, scientists live on Oahu's Ewa Beach, about 500 feet from the
Pacific center. It takes staffers about two minutes to get to the office,
said Stuart Weinstein, the center's assistant director.
The Hawaii center also will go round-the-clock this spring or summer. Since
May, it has increased its staff from eight people to 13 and still needs to
fill two spots.
Its responsibility also has branched out from the Pacific basin to include
the Caribbean. And it is working with Japan to monitor the Indian Ocean
until a warning system is installed in that region.
NOAA will spend most of the federal money on 39 buoys with pressure
recorders anchored to the sea floor that can detect tsunamis. The buoys
relay information to warning centers via satellite. NOAA plans to raise the
number of buoys in the Pacific Ocean to 32 from 10 and add seven in the
Atlantic, which has none, by 2007.
Even before the Indian Ocean disaster, scientists in Palmer were helping
vulnerable communities in Alaska set up evacuation plans.
A magnitude-9.2 earthquake shook Alaska on Good Friday in 1964 -- the
biggest quake ever recorded in North America. It and the ensuing tsunami
killed 115 people in Alaska. The waves also killed 16 people in California.
And in 1946, a tsunami spawned by an Alaskan quake killed 159 people in
Hilo, Hawaii, about 3,000 miles away.
.
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