Senator proposes creating global tsunami warning system

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration would lead development of a global tsunami detection and warning system under legislation proposed Thursday by Sen. Joe Lieberman, D-Conn.

Lieberman unveiled the measure in a news conference 11 days after a rare Indian Ocean tsunami inundated the coastlines of several Southeast Asian nations. At least 140,000 people are dead and millions of others are homeless.

The giant wave was triggered by an undersea earthquake. The world's most powerful temblor in 40 years was centered off the west coast of northern Sumatra in Indonesia.

"A couple of relatively inexpensive sensor buoys and a satellite for them to talk to could have provided the warning the people of Sri Lanka, Thailand and other nations needed to evacuate before the wall of water was literally pounding down their doors," Lieberman told reporters.

He said the Global Tsunami Detection and Warning System Act is designed to close gaps in the U.S. tsunami warning system and cross international boundaries -- much like hurricane and typhoon warning systems do - to give seaside communities around the world a chance to evacuate.

Lieberman's bill would direct NOAA to work with other vulnerable coastal nations to deploy 40 to 50 buoy-based wave sensors throughout the Pacific, Indian and Atlantic oceans - including the Caribbean -- to warn of potential tsunami threats. It would also authorize $30 million in funding to cover the U.S. contribution for deploying and maintaining the system. Lieberman said he intends to introduce the bill as soon as the next congressional session begins.

Since the tsunami hit on Dec. 26, NOAA has been defending itself against criticism that it did not do all it could to warn Southeast Asian governments about the approaching wall of water. The agency says scientists were hampered because its wave sensor network does not reach into the Indian Ocean. They were attuned to the danger, but blind to it without a way to detect it.

A time line posted on NOAA's Web site describes how scientists at the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center went to work within minutes of receiving a seismic signal from the earthquake.

Studying data from buoys NOAA operates in the Pacific Ocean, they determined there was no tsunami threat to the west coast of North America and other coasts in the Pacific Basin. "NOAA officials tried to get the message out to other nations not a part of its Pacific warning system to alert them to the possibility of a tsunami," says a statement on the Web site. "However, the tsunami raced across the ocean at speeds up to 500 mph."

The scientists' first indication a destructive tsunami existed came more than two hours after the quake, when wire services reported Sri Lanka had been hit.

Within days of the disaster Conrad Lautenbacher, NOAA chief and Commerce undersecretary for oceans and atmosphere, told the Associated Press he had ordered an internal review of his agency's response to the earthquake and tsunami.

The Pacific-based NOAA moored-buoy system known as DART, short for Deep Ocean Assessment and Reporting of Tsunamis, won a Commerce Department gold medal in November. The United States has no warning systems in the Atlantic Ocean or the Caribbean Sea, regions thought to be at lower risk.

Lieberman said U.S. coasts are vulnerable, although the possibility of a tsunami strike is slim.