Search

Presents the first part of a series of articles regarding the impact of the Indian Ocean tsunami to the disaster preparedness of the government agencies in the U.S. Failure of local and international authorities to warn the affected areas on the devastating impact of the tsunami despite the extensive monitoring conducted by the U.S. Tsunami Warning Centers; Assessment of the conflicting interpretations and decisions among agencies with regards to tsunami advisories; Highlights of the response of the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center in Hawaii to the unfortunate event; Assessment of the potential devastating impact of near-source tsunamis in the coastal areas of the country; Thoughts on the theories about the tsunami threat.

The article focuses on Laura Kong, a graduate of Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)/Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) who led a world tsunami awareness program. Kong was one of the first people in the world to learn the magnitude of the earthquake off the coast of Indonesia. But she had to wait, like the rest of us, to know the full scale of the catastrophic tsunami. She got the news from a Reuters news report about four hours after the first phone call. As director of ITIC, Kong's job is a blend of administrator, scientist, diplomat, and teacher. She administers the activities of the 26-nation International Coordination Group for the Tsunami Warning System in the Pacific. She promotes technology transfer and tsunami and seismic data sharing among agencies and nations, while recommending improvements to the warning system. Her group also serves as a clearing- house for tsunami information and educational materials. Since the December 26 tsunami in the Indian Ocean, the traffic in Kong's e-mail box has risen from 10 messages per day to hundreds, with inquiries and information from students, journalists, concerned citizens, and officials from around the world.

The article reports that early warning systems will not prevent tsunami losses. Plans by the International Coordination Group for the Tsunami Warning System to extend sophisticated warning systems into the Indian Ocean will not limit insured losses from tsunamis, according to a report by reinsurance broker Guy Carpenter. The Indian Ocean already has some tsunami gauges, but it lacks the sophisticated buoy systems found in the Pacific Ocean. The coordination group is working to create a global tsunami warning network. Guy Carpenter says it is unclear how effective the planned network will be. The planned network comes in response to the tsunamis in the Indian Ocean in December last year.