Capital Eye by Randi Bjornstad
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Capital Eye by Randi Bjornstad
Not much has been more horrific on this earth for a long time than the recent news out of Southern Asia about the ravages of the day-after-Christmas tsunami that has claimed somewhere in the neighborhood of 150,000 lives, even though that figure keeps changing upward or downward on nearly a daily basis.
The mere idea of an incredible wave generating itself somewhere deep in the ocean following a massive earthquake, gathering its strength and traveling hundreds or even thousands of miles until it rolls full-force onto beaches and into coastal communities, wiping out entire populations and devastating landscapes and cities, boggles the mind and threatens the very idea of safe living.
That’s mostly because the “enemy” here happens to be Mother Nature, a force we want to believe mostly benign and nurturing of our desires to live and live well on the Earth. But, as we see all too often, it taint necessarily so, and especially–unfortunately and ironically–for those who live in the less technologically adept parts of the world.
Not that those of us in this part of the globe should feel all that comfortable about our own prospects in case a deep-sea earthquake should happen in this part of the Pacific Ocean.
The Asian experience raises many questions about the readiness of governments and communities all along the western coast of the United States to deal with the awful possibility of a major earthquake along the subduction zone that lies 40 or 50 miles offshore, which easily could be subject to exactly the same kind of tectonic movement that recently ripped Indonesia, India and Sri Lanka to shreds.
Take the Oregon coast, for instance, a place that has its beaches posted with tsunami warning signs, which wouldn’t do a whit of good if one really happened.
Populations along the west coast of this country, within cities, might stand a ghost of a chance of evacuating in time in case of a major disaster like the one that recently occurred in Asia. But our emergency management plans and skills still leave a lot to be desired.
For example, some communities have warning sirens, at the ready to blast for three minutes nonstop if an earthquake occurs and a tsunami has been unleashed.
But that doesn’t do any good for all of the scattered but still significant populations that string themselves for miles outside these small communities.
Beyond that, there’s no single method of alerting coast-dwellers about the impending doom of a tsunami. Some communities have the sirens, while others depend on “reverse 9-1-1” telephone systems. That sounds great, of course, unless you’re out of the house when the phone starts ringing to let you know to evacuate or if you’re a tourist depending on a cell phone while at your campground or motel.
Let’s face it: Despite our supposed sophistication, we’re still woefully unprepared to deal with a disaster of this magnitude.
Of course, there will be bills in the brand new session of Congress to deal with this issue, and the first comes from Sen. Joseph Lieberman of Connecticut.
Lieberman’s bill is so new it doesn’t even have a number yet. But he does talk about the fact that this country currently has a limited tsunami detection and early warning system in place and that the system operated by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration depends on six–yes, just six–pressure sensors located on the ocean floor, three near Alaska, one each off the Oregon and Washington coasts and the last south of the equator, even far beyond Baja California.
This clearly doesn’t do enough good, Lieberman says. It wouldn’t protect the west coast populations in this country, much less alert people in other nations to a possible disaster.
So he’s proposing a complete system of new and better sensors that cost somewhere around $250,000 apiece and could be placed strategically throughout the vulnerable Pacific region for no more than $10 million.
Lieberman’s “Global Tsunami Detection and Warning System Act” would direct the departments of state and commerce to take the lead in working with other nations to fill the tsunami-detection gap worldwide.
It’s a tiny price to pay and should be done at once. Only one thing could be better: An early-warning system to prevent the even worse slaughter caused by human-against-human.