Activities keep islanders prepared for tsunamis
POSTED: Sunday, March 21, 2010
Tsunami Awareness Week today through Saturday and Tsunami Awareness Month in April will reinforce what islanders learned less than a month ago about the importance of being prepared for a tsunami.
Coastal residents were warned to evacuate Feb. 27 after the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center in Ewa Beach said a tsunami was headed here, generated by a magnitude 8.8 earthquake off Chile.
After the warning was called off, Geophysicist Gerard Fryer at the center said Hawaii “;dodged a bullet”; because the arriving tsunami waves were smaller than expected.
Hilo was not so lucky with another tsunami that originated in Chile in 1960. The tsunami's arrival time was predicted correctly, but many people did not heed the warnings and the evacuation did not cover enough area, according to a U.S. Geological Survey report.
Waves 15 feet high wiped out homes and buildings in Hilo and 61 people died.
The most destructive tsunami in Hawaii's history originated in the Aleutian Islands on April 1, 1946. It struck without warning, killing 159 people on the Big Island with waves averaging 30 feet high.
The disaster led to the establishment of a tsunami warning system with centers in Hawaii and Alaska operated by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
NOAA scientists and Civil Defense volunteers will visit all Hawaii schools in evacuation zones as part of awareness activities to discuss the tsunami risks and provide educational materials. They also will review the schools' emergency plans.
The school visits will begin tomorrow at Ka Waihona o ka Na'auao Public Charter School in Nanakuli.
Lt. Gov. James “;Duke”; Aiona Jr. will present a proclamation announcing Tsunami Awareness Month, held annually in April to commemorate the devastating April 1, 1946, tsunami. Fryer and retired Honolulu policeman Manny Mattos, a Civil Defense volunteer, will join Aiona and Principal Alvin Parker in talking to students, teachers and parents.
NOAA will sponsor display booths and children's activities at several public events on Oahu and the Big Island during the next two months to help families prepare for a tsunami.
Recent tsunami catastrophes include last month's earthquakes and tsunami in Chile that caused about 800 deaths and the Sept. 29 tsunami last year that killed 142 people in Samoa, 32 in American Samoa and nine in Tonga.
The Dec. 26, 2004, Indian Ocean tsunami was the deadliest in history, killing more than 230,000 people, and spurred Congress to provide funding to improve the warning network.
NOAA received more than $90 million to expand detection and warning capabilities and another $135 million for research, integrated observing systems, hazard mitigation and a global tsunami warning and education network.
“;As a result of this investment, the nation and the world are better prepared for the next disaster,”; NOAA said in a news release on the first Tsunami Awareness Week.
TSUNAMI AWARENESS EVENTSTsunami Awareness Month will be observed in Hawaii with these events scheduled through May:
» Tomorrow: The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and Hawaii State Civil Defense will give a tsunami awareness and safety presentation from 9 to 10:30 a.m. at Ka Waihona o Ka Na'auao Public Charter School in Nanakuli.
» Tomorrow: University of Hawaii professor Kwok Fai Cheung and state Civil Defense representatives will give the Maui County Council in Kahului a presentation at 9 a.m. on plans to update tsunami inundation zone maps.
» Wednesday: NOAA and state Civil Defense will sponsor a statewide tsunami communications test, with similar exercises planned in the Gulf of Mexico, Atlantic and West Coast states, Alaska and Pacific Island nations.
» April 10: The Pacific Tsunami Museum, 130 Kamehameha Ave., Hilo, will hold an open house from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.; free admission.
» April 10: The Waikiki Aquarium will hold “;Mauka to Makai Earth Day”; from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m.; free admission. The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center and International Tsunami Information Center with Civil Defense partners will sponsor displays, keiki activities and provide preparedness materials.
» April 15: The Bishop Museum Planetarium will present a “;Tsunami Spherecast”; at 10 a.m. (call 848-4165 to confirm time). The program will focus on the Chilean tsunami. Lectures will be illustrated by images projected on Science on a Sphere, a 6-foot fiberglass globe suspended from the ceiling.
» April 16: Molokai Earth Day Celebration at the Mitchell Pauole Community Center in Kaunakakai. NOAA and Civil Defense will sponsor keiki activities and provide tsunami preparedness information.
» April 23: Annual Hawaii Community College Earth Day Fair, 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., University of Hawaii-Hilo campus. NOAA and Civil Defense will sponsor keiki activities and provide tsunami preparedness information.
» May 2: NOAA and Civil Defense officials will sponsor keiki activities and provide tsunami information at Nana I Ke Kai III-Seasons in the Sea, a celebration of the transition from wet to dry season in the islands, from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. at the Waikiki Aquarium.
» May 23: Eighth Annual Tsunami Talk Story Festival: “;Hilo Perseveres,”; 6 p.m. at the Pacific Tsunami Museum, Sangha Hall, 130 Kamehameha Ave., Hilo, 935-0926. The dinner and program will commemorate the 50th anniversary of the May 22, 1960, tsunami.
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