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Tuesday, March 15, 2011

Pierluisi Introduces Legislation to Create Tsunami Warning Center in Puerto Rico

WASHINGTON, DC- The Resident Commissioner, Pedro Pierluisi, today introduced legislation that would direct the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration to establish a tsunami forecasting and warning center in Puerto Rico, so that Island residents and other population centers in the Caribbean are better prepared to face the risks that tsunamis pose to the region.

“This center will result in improved tsunami detection, warning and education activities in the Caribbean. On earlier occasions, I have urged the U.S. Department of Commerce, which includes the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, to appropriate the funds necessary to establish, equip and operate a tsunami warning center at the University of Puerto Rico-Mayagüez. However, in light of the very real threat that tsunamis pose to the Caribbean region, I believe it is imperative that Congress require the prompt creation of the center through the enactment of federal legislation,” explained the Resident Commissioner.

Notwithstanding the threat that tsunamis pose to persons and property in Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands, the only two tsunami warning centers in the United States are both located in the Pacific region. The first is located is in Ewa Beach, Hawaii, and is responsible for warning Hawaii, Guam, the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, American Samoa, and over 90 foreign countries. The second is located in Palmer, Alaska and is responsible for warning Alaska, coastal states of the U.S. mainland and Canada, as well as Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands.

In a letter sent last year to the U.S. Commerce Secretary, Pierluisi underscored the vulnerability of Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands, citing previous occasions where tsunamis triggered by local earthquakes caused deaths and major property damage in the two territories. In his letter, the Resident Commissioner also noted that Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands are at risk from tsunamis generated by seismic activity in the broader Caribbean, like the earthquake that recently devastated Haiti. Finally, Pierluisi cited a NOAA study that concluded that Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands, along with four Pacific coast states, “face the greatest tsunami hazard in the United States.”

Passage of the bill, entitled The Tsunami Forecasting and Warning Improvement Act of 2011, would eliminate the risk of a communication failure or delay between the Alaska-based warning center and Caribbean-based officials in the event of an emergency in Puerto Rico.

“There are strong arguments that counsel in favor of establishing a third tsunami warning center in the Caribbean region. The Alaska-based center is located nearly 5,000 miles from Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands. Some may insist that physical distance is irrelevant, given that the center obtains data from detection mechanisms located in the Caribbean region—and that, thanks to satellite and fiber optic communications systems, the information gleaned from these buoys can be almost instantaneously transmitted to the Alaska center. I respectfully submit that if physical distance between the warning center and the monitored region were truly immaterial, then the current tsunami warning centers would not have been built in two of our country’s most tsunami-prone regions,” Pierluisi said.

Thanks to the efforts of Governor Luis Fortuño and the Resident Commissioner to date, the National Weather Service has indicated that it has begun a phased approach to building the Puerto Rico-based center.

Pierluisi’s bill was introduced with the support of Representatives Edward Markey (Massachusetts), who is the lead Democratic on the Committee on Natural Resources; Donna Christensen (U.S. Virgin Islands); Steve Rothman (New Jersey), José Serrano (New York); Eni Faleomavaega (American Samoa), and Madeleine Bordallo (Guam).