White House issues tsunami disaster plan

Hoping to protect US shores from being hammered by a tsunami, the White House issued a national plan today for increased earthquake and volcano monitoring systems, deep ocean buoys and other high-tech means of alerting oceanside communities.

President George Bush and Congress requested the tsunami plan after an earthquake on December 26, 2004, caused a massive tsunami in the Indian Ocean. It killed or left missing more than 220,000 people in 11 Indian Ocean countries, and “demonstrated international vulnerability,” said John Marburger, Bush’s top science adviser.

“Tsunamis are low probability but high impact events,” he said.

The tsunami rose a massive 30ft. Sumatra was the hardest hit, losing some 128,000 people. But the great wave also travelled around the world, and was recorded as far away as Peru and northeastern Canada.

Marburger, who directs the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, said US-led improvements in tsunami detection and warning since a year ago have made people safer at home and work, and the new plan will continue to reduce risks to life and property.

Specifically, the plan written by the president’s National Science and Technology Council aims to:

-Develop risk assessments of the potential tsunami hazards for all US coastal regions.

-Increase the number of tsunami buoys, tide gauge and seismic sensors feeding real-time data into computer models to improve tsunami forecasting and warning systems along Pacific, Atlantic, Caribbean and Gulf of Mexico coastlines.

-Give technical help to improve warning systems for tsunamis and other hazards in the Indian Ocean.

-Encourage communities to develop tsunami response plans, and to build and plan better in ways that can reduce the impact of a future tsunami.