[Radix] We're betting on what?

[George Kent]

Radixers --

Some of you might be interested in today's Honolulu Advertiser's  
story about the plan to once again place the Pacific Tsunami Warning  
Center into a tsunami inundation zone.

Aloha, George




Posted on: Sunday, June 11, 2006

Ford Island called risky site for tsunami center

By Jaymes Song
Associated Press

A national advocacy group and some of the scientists at the Pacific  
Tsunami Warning Center have raised concerns over the facility's  
planned move to Pearl Harbor because it would be too close to sea  
level, putting it at greater risk of being hit by a giant wave.

The Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility, or PEER, said  
it has been contacted by scientists who object to the center's  
relocation to Ford Island and question the National Oceanic and  
Atmospheric Administration's reasoning.

"One does not have to be a geophysicist to question the wisdom of  
placing a key component of our tsunami warning system on a harbor  
island only a few feet above sea level," PEER Executive Director Jeff  
Ruch said.

Ruch, whose group is expected to issue a news release tomorrow about  
its concerns, said the center has "critical duties" to perform during  
a tsunami.

"By putting the tsunami warning center on a harbor island, NOAA is  
tending its own bureaucratic turf at the expense of public safety,"  
he said.

NOAA is expected to break ground in August on its $240 million  
regional center on Ford Island, which will consolidate the agency's  
offices across O'ahu at one site by 2011. The project would involve  
the restoration and renovation of several World War II-era buildings,  
including hangars.

NOAA spokeswoman Delores Clark said the new tsunami warning center  
would be on the third floor of the complex. She noted that there are  
no records of any damaging tsunami hitting Pearl Harbor, the hub for  
the U.S. Navy in the Pacific.

Pearl Harbor is also not listed as a tsunami inundation zone by the  
state, but that could be from lack of information provided by the  
military about the area, the warning center said.

Three other sites were examined, but Ford Island met all of NOAA's  
requirements, including space for its three research vessels, Clark  
said.

"The issue wasn't 'Where were we moving the tsunami warning center?'  
It was 'Where can we find a location that will accommodate all of our  
requirements and offices?' And Ford Island was it," Clark said.

Ruch said consolidating NOAA's operations in Hawai'i "has a certain  
bureaucratic attractiveness, but from the point of view of readiness,  
it's asinine."

Located in the middle of Pearl Harbor, Ford Island has naval housing  
and facilities. Many U.S. warships damaged or destroyed by the  
Japanese during the 1941 attack were moored alongside Ford Island on  
"Battleship Row."

The advocacy group said that the island would have to be evacuated in  
the event of a tsunami but that if the floating bridge were raised,  
evacuation might not be possible.

In addition, scientists at the tsunami center object to the move  
because a host of operational and logistical problems and the  
possibility of nullifying much of the benefit from the $16.7 million  
being spent to upgrade its system, PEER said.

Ruch said his group was contacted by the tsunami center employees  
because they felt their "own chain of command was not taking the  
issues they raised seriously."

Stuart Weinstein, acting director of the Pacific Tsunami Warning  
Center, said employees have brought up their concerns to NOAA.

"Let's just say there's a range of opinions here at the center  
regarding the move," he said. "Some people here think it's a good  
idea. Some people are not quite happy about it."

Weinstein said the limited information available still leads him to  
believe that Ford Island would be at least as safe as, if not a  
little safer than, the center's present location in 'Ewa Beach, which  
also is at sea level a few hundred yards away from the ocean and on  
the edge of a tsunami zone.

NOAA said there were concerns brought up by the employees union, and  
those issues were taken into consideration.

PEER said Diamond Head crater, home of state Civil Defense facilities  
and protected by high volcanic slopes, would be a more appropriate  
location for the tsunami warning center.

"If they're going to move it, move it at least above any foreseeable  
tsunami wave level," Ruch said.

The group said NOAA has rejected an effort to move the center inside  
the crater. But Clark called the claim "inaccurate," saying Diamond  
Head wasn't even considered as a possible site for the center.

"The agency never did consider Diamond Head," she said. "We weren't  
looking to move the tsunami warning center — we were looking to  
consolidate NOAA."
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