Buscan sede para centro de tsunamis
Varios países propusieron a Puerto Rico durante una reunión celebrada en Panamá.

Por FRANK GAUD CARRAU (AP)
MAYAGUEZ - Puerto Rico busca ser sede del Centro de Alerta de Tsunami del Caribe, reveló Christa Von Hillebrandt, actual directora de la Red Sísmica de Puerto Rico.


Varios países propusieron a Puerto Rico como sede durante una reunión celebrada en Panamá hace varias semanas, pero la decisión final se tomará en Martinica en noviembre de 2009.

“A pesar de que nuestras instalaciones, por el momento, no son apropiadas, la isla podría ser escogida para esos planes debido a los avances que ya hemos tenido en la ubicación de sistemas modernos para detectar con tiempo este tipo de fenómenos”, dijo Von Hillebrandt durante un taller que se llevó a cabo el sábado en el Recinto Universitario de Mayagüez de la UPR.


“Puerto Rico ya tiene listo un sistema con buena tecnología, a pesar de que Venezuela también solicitó ser la sede, y Nicaragua aseguró que podría ser una alternativa”, detalló.


La investigadora aseguró que varios países propusieron a Puerto Rico como sede, pero también enfrentó objeciones de tipo político debido a su relación con Estados Unidos, “ya que el proyecto propuesto por los investigadores recientemente requiere que Cuba se incluya en los planes, de manera que todas las naciones puedan contribuir en los estudios”.


“Eso se podría solucionar, pues sabemos que el Centro Nacional de Meteorología en San Juan (adscrito a la Administración Nacional de Océanos y Atmósfera de Estados Unidos) ha logrado mantener una buena relación con Cuba”, comentó Von Hillebrandt.


La Universidad de Puerto Rico (UPR) aún trata de identificar los fondos para construir un edificio moderno para la Red Sísmica.


Von Hillebrandt, presidenta de un comité escogido en Panamá para establecer los criterios que debe tener el Centro de Alerta de Tsunami para el Caribe, explicó que la instalación propuesta deberá estar lista para 2010.


La Red Sísmica mantiene 25 estaciones, dos cercanas a República Dominicana, y 31 técnicos, incluyendo siete estudiantes de nivel graduado.


Los sismólogos de la Red monitorean 24 horas y siete días a la semana éstas y otras 70 estaciones ubicadas en distintos puntos de América Latina.


También vigilan unos seis mareógrafos que sirven para detectar cualquier peligro en caso de maremotos.


Un estudio de 2003 del Servicio Geológico de Estados Unidos reveló que el área oeste-suroeste de Puerto Rico es más vulnerable a terremotos y que los maremotos figuran entre los peligros secundarios.


Los esfuerzos en establecer un centro de alerta en el Caribe comenzaron hace tres años, después del terremoto cercano a la isla indonesia de Sumatra, que desencadenó un tsunami que mató al menos 230,000 personas en una docena de países, incluidas 160,000 en la provincia de Aceh en el extremo oriental del archipiélago de Indonesia.

http://www.elnuevodia.com/diario/noticia/portada/noticias/buscan_sede_para_centro_de_tsunamis/388141

Pierluisi pushes for PR tsunami center

By CB Online Staff
cbnews@caribbeanbusinesspr.com

Resident Commissioner Pedro Pierluisi is seeking federal funds to establish a warning center in Puerto Rico to improve the detection and warning system for tsunamis in the Caribbean. Pierluisi pointed to the potential threat to Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands, citing a National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) study released in April that listed those two jurisdictions and four Pacific states as the nation’s most susceptible to tsunamis.
http://www.caribbeanbusinesspr.com/fotos/sign.jpgThe resident commissioner noted in a letter to the U.S. Commerce Department, an umbrella agency that covers NOAA, that the only two tsunami warning centers in the United States are in the Pacific region.
The one at Ewa Beach, Hawaii is responsible for issuing warnings for Hawaii, Guam, American Samoa, the Northern Mariana Islands and some 90 foreign jurisdictions.
The other, at Palmer, Alaska, covers that sprawling state, the coasts of the U.S. mainland, Canada, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands.
Pierluisi’s letter comes just days after a panel commissioned by Congress found gaps and communications lapses in the U.S. tsunami warning system.
“There are sufficient arguments in favor of a third tsunami warning center in the Caribbean,” Pierluisi said in the letter. “The warning center in Alaska is 5,000 miles from Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands.”
“There are those who say that distance is irrelevant because the centers obtain data from different tools in the Caribbean that is transmitted nearly instantaneously thanks to fiber optics and other means of communication,” Pierluisi said.
“We respectfully submit that if the distance was really immaterial, then why are the centers located in areas of high vulnerability to tsunamis, “the resident commissioner wrote.
Adding a center in the Caribbean would eliminate any concern or risk that could arise from any failure of communication between Alaska and the Caribbean, he argued.
“When a tsunami occurs the smallest error or confusion could be fatal,” Pierluisi said.
The center could also serve to improve awareness about tsunamis among residents of the region, he said.
Puerto Rico Seismic Network chief Christa Von Hillebrandt has long called for a tsumani warning center in the Caribbean. The Mayagüez-based center sends data on earthquakes to the west coast of the mainland and the Alaska Tsunami Warning Center, which would issue an alert if an earthquake in the area could have generated a tsunami.
Earthquakes caused tsunamis that affected Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands and Hispaniola in 1867, 1918 and 1946. Mayagüez and surrounding towns are especially vulnerable because they lie in an earthquake-prone zone and along the deep Mona Channel, where tsunamis have occurred in the past. In 1918, a tsunami caused by a large earthquake in the channel caused serious damage and killed dozens of people on the west coast of Puerto Rico.
In recent years, officials have been working to boost local warning systems and preparedness.
The Puerto Rico Tsunami and Warning Mitigation Program, a collaboration of the Federal Emergency Management Agency and University of Puerto Rico, was launched in 2000, and has produced coastal flood maps, books and videos — and the signs that can be seen around the island warning of danger zones. NOAA has also been positioning additional data buoys throughout the Caribbean.
Better coordination needed in US tsunami warnings
The U.S. system to warn about giant waves has improved since the deadly Indian Ocean tsunami in 2004, but more work lies ahead, according to an analysis that noted at least one instance when alerts from centers in Hawaii and Alaska appeared to contradict each other.
“For a tsunami warning system to be effective, it must operate flawlessly, and emergency officials must coordinate seamlessly and communicate clearly,” John Orcutt of the Scripps Institution of Oceanography in La Jolla, Calif., said in a statement last week.
He led a National Research Council panel that studied the warning system at the request of Congress and released its report Friday.
The study found that an earthquake on June 14, 2005, off the coast of California resulted in seemingly contradictory reports that confused the media, the public and local officials.
The federal government’s two centers collect data from a variety of sources and issue warnings when a giant wave threatens coastal areas.
In the 2005 case, the Alaska center correctly warned the coastal California-Oregon region that a tsunami was possible. But just minutes later, the Hawaii center reported no warning was needed in its area of responsibility, which includes Mexico.
Both were correct. But emergency managers in California, who saw both reports, were confused and some got the impression that the all-clear from Hawaii canceled the warning from Alaska.
The report recommended better coordination between the two centers. It also noted that the reason for two centers was to one to back up the other, but they do not operate that way, “creating an illusion of redundancy that could prove dangerous and costly.”
The experts urged changes in the centers’ management, operations and organizational culture. That includes deciding whether the centers should issue a single message or whether a single, centrally managed center should be created, in the model of the National Hurricane Center in Florida.
While it noted much progress in detecting and warning about tsunamis since 2004, the study called for more ocean sensors and public education campaigns.
The National Research Council is part of the National Academy of Sciences, an independent organization chartered by Congress to advise the government on scientific matters.
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Issued : Monday, January 10, 2011 03:46 PM
US picks Puerto Rico to host nation’s third tsunami warning center (http://www.caribbeanbusinesspr.com/news03.php?nt_id=52731&ct_id=1)
By CB Online Staff
cbnews@caribbeanbusinesspr.com

The federal government is setting up a warning center in Puerto Rico to improve the detection and warning system for tsunamis in the Caribbean and the U.S. East Coast, Gov. Luis Fortuño announced Monday.

The decision by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), the National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and the National Weather Service (NWS) came after stepped up lobbying efforts in recent months by Fortuño and Resident Commissioner Pedro Pierluisi.

“Puerto Rico has proven to be especially vulnerable as it is ringed by active seismic faults and marine trenches. There is a history of tsunamis in the Caribbean,” Fortuño wrote in a letter to Obama.

In a recent letter to the U.S. Commerce Department, an umbrella agency that covers NOAA, Pierluisi pointed to the potential threat to Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands. He cited a NOAA study released in April that listed those two jurisdictions and four Pacific states as the nation’s most susceptible to tsunamis.

The new center will be just the third in the nation.

Currently, the only two tsunami warning centers in the United States are in the Pacific region. The one at Ewa Beach, Hawaii is responsible for issuing warnings for Hawaii, Guam, American Samoa, the Northern Mariana Islands and some 90 foreign jurisdictions. The other, at Palmer, Alaska, covers that sprawling state, the coasts of the U.S. mainland, Canada, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands.

The heightened lobbying efforts for a Puerto Rico-based center came after a panel commissioned by Congress found gaps and communications lapses in the U.S. tsunami warning system. The island’s top two elected officials argued that adding a center in the Caribbean would eliminate any concern or risk that could arise from any failure or lag in communication between Alaska and the Caribbean.

The new Caribbean Tsunami Alert Center will be helmed by Christa von Hillebrandt, the former head of the Puerto Rico Seismic Network who currently directs the NOAA-NWS Caribbean Tsunami Warning Program.

Von Hillebrandt has long called for a tsunami warning center in the Caribbean. Currently, the Mayagüez-based Seisic Network center sends data on earthquakes to the west coast of the mainland and the Alaska Tsunami Warning Center, which would issue an alert if an earthquake in the area could have generated a tsunami.

Earthquakes and undersea landslides pose the biggest tsunami threat to Puerto Rico and the Caribbean, where warning periods can be shorter because of the relatively narrower expanses of sea than in the Pacific and Atlantic oceans. Temblors are not uncommon in Puerto Rico, with a moderate 5.4 earthquake rattling the San Juan area and much of the island on Christmas Eve. A more powerful 5.7 temblor shook the island in May. Neither prompted a tsunami warning.

Earthquakes caused tsunamis that affected Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands and Hispaniola in 1867, 1918 and 1946. Mayagüez and surrounding towns are especially vulnerable because they lie in an earthquake-prone zone and along the deep Mona Channel, where tsunamis have occurred in the past. In 1918, a tsunami caused by a large earthquake in the channel caused serious damage and killed dozens of people on the west coast of Puerto Rico.

“The Caribbean region is one of the most seismically active regions in the world with a huge potential for death and destruction as evidenced by the January 2010 earthquake in Haiti,” Von Hillebrandt said in April. “Almost 100 tsunamis have struck the shores of the Caribbean nations over the past 500 years, with the most recent deadly tsunami generated by the earthquake in Haiti.”

In recent years, officials have been working to boost local warning systems and preparedness.

A Puerto Rico Tsunami and Warning Mitigation Program, a collaboration of the FEMA and University of Puerto Rico, was launched in 2000, and produced coastal flood maps, books and videos — and the signs that can be seen around the island warning of danger zones. NOAA has also been positioning additional data buoys throughout the Caribbean.

The Caribbean Tsunami Warning Program was established at UPR Mayagüez last year to help lay the groundwork for a full-fledged warning center.

Fortuño said that some $6 million has been identified to help fund construction of a facility to house both the tsunami warning center and the Seismic Network on the UPR Mayagüez campus. In his letter to Obama, the governor requested $6 million in matching funds from Congress and an annual allotment of $3 million to cover salaries for 15 warning center employees and the fund tsunami awareness efforts.

“We are very pleased with the establishment of the center on the island. We can now be sure that all U.S. citizens living along the Eastern Seaboard and the Caribbean will be covered by this lifesaving tool," the governor said.

The U.S. system to warn about giant waves has improved since the deadly Indian Ocean tsunami in 2004, but more work lies ahead, according to a 2010 analysis commissioned by Congress.

During her tenure at the Seismic Network (1990-2010) and as a member of the UPR Geology Department, Von Hillebrandt provided key leadership in the modernization, restructuring, staffing and funding of the Seismic Network to provide earthquake and tsunami monitoring, warning and education services.

The author and co-author of more than 50 journal papers and abstracts on earthquakes and tsunamis, Von Hillebrandt has also served on the Puerto Rico Earthquake Safety Commission and the Puerto Rico Tsunami Technical Review Committee. Since 2005, she has been a member of the United States delegations to the UNESCO meetings on tsunamis and the oceans. In 2008 she was elected chair of a UNESCO Working Group on Tsunami Monitoring and Warning Guidance and Other Coastal Hazards Warning System for the Caribbean and Adjacent Regions — encompassing nearly 30 nations in the Caribbean and Americas.

Excellent!:banana:

muy bueno, y no solo por lo q es, si no que bueno para Mayaguez (empleos ext) y para el Colegio

SIIII! :D