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• National Council for Science and the Environment
• U.S. Department of State

Summary

Some in Congress are concerned about the possible vulnerability of U.S. coastal areas to tsunamis, and about the adequacy of early warning for coastal areas of the western Atlantic Ocean. This stems from the December 26, 2004, tsunami that devastated many coastal areas around the northern Indian Ocean, where few tsunami early warning systems currently operate. The tsunami was caused by a strong underwater earthquake off the coast of Sumatra, Indonesia; and together, the earthquake and tsunami are estimated to have claimed as many as 300,000 lives. Affected nations, assisted by others, are pursuing multilateral efforts through the UNESCO Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission (IOC) to develop a regional tsunami detection and warning network that would guard coastal populations around the Indian Ocean. Those efforts would coincide with the United States' goal of upgrading and expanding its tsunami detection and early warning network. Some developed countries bounding the Indian Ocean region already have operating tsunami warnings systems. However, in areas of these countries and in neighboring countries, an emergency management infrastructure to receive tsunami warnings is lacking, leaving local officials incapable of rapidly alerting the public to evacuate or to take other safety precautions. Disaster management experts assert that an emergency management infrastructure includes not just issuing tsunami warnings, but also educating indigenous people and visitors about the potential dangers in the area; clearly communicating evacuation options; and adapting to potential risks through construction of public shelters, conducting periodic evacuation drills, and producing tsunami inundation maps for guiding future land-use planning. The Bush Administration's plan for upgrading the U.S. tsunami early warning network proposes $37.5 million through 2007 to expand from six existing deepwater tsunami detection buoys to a total of 32 for the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans, Gulf of Mexico, and Caribbean Sea. The National Weather Service, which operates the U.S. program, estimates initial procurement costs to be around $24 million, excluding outyear funding for operations and maintenance. In the 109th Congress, H.R. 1268, the Emergency Supplemental Appropriations Act of FY2005, and other legislation, would provide funding to procure, deploy, and maintain a comprehensive U.S. tsunami early warning network. The Administration and some in Congress consider an upgraded U.S. system the first step toward building a global capability. Although U.S. proposals alone for instrumentation and maintenance could run into millions of dollars, some suggest the benefits would far outweigh the costs. Others have questioned whether the risks of tsunamis outside the Pacific Basin justify the investment. To share costs, international science agencies have suggested that global or regional warning networks could be built upon extant ocean data collection systems, marine data buoys, tide gauge networks, regional coastal and ocean observation networks, and global telecommunications systems. However, many experts affirm that a global warning network would be most useful in countries that also have expansive national emergency management capability. This report is updated as warranted.

Related Legislation:
• H.R.1268
• S.300

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