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Samoa Develops Tsunami Warning System Capability |
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Monday, 28 April 2008 12:00 |
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This week, Samoa will receive a boost to its existing tsunami warning and mitigation system, with the support of an international team who will lead a week long tsunami warning and mitigation system workshop.
The devastating Indian Ocean tsunami of 2004 highlighted the need for the global community to protect coastal communities, by working towards efficient and robust tsunami early warning systems. Last years Solomon Islands tsunami, which took the lives of approximately 22 people, was a solemn reminder of the tsunami threat existing in the Pacific Ocean.
Samoa’s Principal Disaster Management Officer, Filomena Nelson and other Samoan experts are this week participating in the workshop which began today in Apia. Samoa has recently designed its tsunami early warning system to enable tsunami warning text messages to be broadcast nationally and at the village level to key community members and response agencies through the GSM mobile network. These messages will then be distributed to the community through a number of methods, including church bells, sirens and word of mouth.
“Once the tsunami warning message is received, the church ministers and school principals will ring the church and school bells fast and continuously, while other village representatives will use word of mouth and other traditional means of notification to alert others? said Nelson.
She added that in the urban areas of Apia, the existing sirens (Fire Service and Port) will sound continuously to inform residents, the business community and the general public to evacuate.
A national drill was conducted in October 2007 to test the system before it became the official tsunami early warning system of Samoa.
“The exercise was very successful. We had the whole country leave their daily chores to run for higher ground, including the central business district in Apia? said Nelson.
“Despite the existence of this system, efforts to strengthen other areas of Samoa’s tsunami early warning and mitigation system must continue, ensuring lives will not be lost if a tsunami affects the country?.
The Australia Agency for International Development has funded the national tsunami capacity assessment project, which is being implemented by the Australian Bureau of Meteorology, Emergency Management Australia and the Pacific Islands Applied Geoscience Commission.
The fourteen SOPAC Member Countries participating in the project include Cook Islands, Federated States of Micronesia, Fiji, Kiribati, Marshall Islands, Nauru, Niue, Palau, Paua New Guinea, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Tonga, Tuvalu and Vanuatu.
The project focuses on assessing the capacity of island nations to respond to tsunami events with the aim of better guiding donor funding and technical assistance towards achieving targeted improvements to in-country tsunami early warning and mitigation systems. The workshops focus on a range of topics from community awareness of tsunami to issuing of tsunami warnings.
So far tsunami capacity assessments have been successfully conducted in the Kingdom of Tonga, the Solomon Islands, Fiji and Vanuatu.
The visiting team will be conducting the workshop in Apia until Thursday May 1st 2008.
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