In this essay, comparing the 1964 Alaska tsunami and the 2004 Indonesia tsunami, I will be looking at the warning system available in 1964 and the warning system 2004 and comparing that despite the advancements in science and technology there is very little warning of disaster.
The Great Alaska Earthquake and Tsunami of March 28, 1964 is said to have been the one of largest earthquakes in the 20th century. Producing a at least 4 tsunami waves thirty – forty meters in height or approximately 100 feet high, to better visualize, a wall of water as high as the Louisville Water Tower, was the wall of water that hit in the Gulf of Alaska at Port Valdez triggering massive landslides all over the bay community. In this remotely populated area 120 people lost their lives and over $106 million dollars of damage, crippling Alaska’s fishing, oil and lumber industries and completely destroying five of the seven communities. It is believed that the underwater tectonic plate movement and landslides caused four of these tsunami waves to hit Alaska about six hours after the initial earthquake. All the waterfront area consisting of approximately 115,000 square miles completely destroyed and stripped all vegetation and trees. All destruction happened with absolutely no forewarning. Tsunamis are usually caused by earthquakes but also may be caused by landslides and volcanic eruptions as well and in the case of Port Valdez, Alaska any warning would have arrived in time.
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However, the morning of December 26, 2004, dawned to be a sun shining warm day at the largely populated tropical beaches of Thailand, Indonesia and Sri Lanka, filled with tourists on Christmas holiday. Without warning at 7:58 AM a 9.1 underwater earthquake happened releasing the force of 550 million times the atomic bomb released on Hiroshima during the World War II. The people only had a few minutes when a series of four waves over 100 feet tall crashed into the unsuspecting vacationers. Authorities did not have way to get any kind of warning to the people in the path of the Tsunami. The sensor system had been hit by lightning and when the officials sent the warning from Thailand to Indonesia after the first wave had hit. The Indian Ocean Tsunami left more than a million people homeless and 230,000 or more dead or unaccounted for. There was no way to predict where the tsunami traveling at speeds of up to 500 miles per hour was going to hit or how high the wall of water was going to be.
After the 2004 tsunami in the Indian Ocean, the Indian Ocean Tsunami Warning and Mitigation System was brought online costing more than $130 million dollars uses seismometers, ocean buoys and tidal gauges to detect undersea tremors or earthquakes. Scientists are trying to issue an alert five minutes of an earthquake that could potentially generate a tsunami. Word can be sent to local governments of the possible severity of a possible tsunami. There are still extensive gaps in all this technology. Once the word is sent to the local governments from there the entire population needs to be notified in time for all people in harm’s way to evacuate. Even if every system in place at the time had worked nothing was in place to warn the people to evacuate inland.
Some of the hardest hit islands in the Indian Ocean were where indigenous tribes live. When rescuers arrived at the remote villages, they saw something that surprised them. Most of the remote tribes were wiped out by the tsunami but the loss of human life was considerably decreased. Most tribes told stories passed down from generation to generation that when the ocean suddenly goes out far enough you can see fish flopping in the mud, if the tide pulls back from the shore, run for the trees. If you live near the beach and feel an earthquake, move to higher ground. This is a story told by many of the elders of the indigenous people in Alaska, Indonesia and most coastal natives.
The incredible power generated by a tsunami is hard to imagine, but one yard of saltwater weighs nearly one ton, the possibility of drowning or being just washed away, large debris and other objects traveling in the water cause the biggest damage to human life. If you live in a low costal area you need to be aware that a tsunami could arrive within minutes after an earthquake and you should be able to move quickly from the water to higher ground. If you are in a boat, get out to sea, if you are in a car get out and run to higher ground. If you can see the ocean, you are too close. Tourists and people not local are particularly vulnerable, they are unfamiliar with what risk they might be in. Do not wait for the tsunami warning or evacuation notice. Usually, they arrive too late to be of any help.
The Tsunami Warning System in Palmer, Alaska costing 35 million dollars, monitors for earthquakes, the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center monitors Hawaii spending 58.2 million dollars and other American territories in the Pacific, and the International Tsunami Warning Center costing 200 million dollars, monitors countries in the Pacific, Indian Oceans as well as the Caribbean. They all work independently as well as together in conjunction with the NOAA National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, gaging seismographic movement and monitoring and recording movement in the earth for possible earthquakes on the numerous fault lines globally, recording wave information, monitoring tides, weather patterns, and 39 tsunami detection buoys developed by the Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory, stationed around the world and particularly in the earthquake zone.
Once a tsunami watch or warning has been issued all coastal weather services are contacted, this activates the Emergency Alert System (EAS) by NOAA Weather Radio and then broadcasted to all television, radio and cable TV. That is how it works in America, in the event of a catastrophic tsunami on the mainland United States preparedness is in place to reduce loss of life. When you look at the Indian Ocean emergency and alert system hasn’t worked since 2012. The alert system is a network of sirens to notify of possible tsunami.
The Tsunami Warning Centers monitor seismic activity and sea levels and based on the data that each one of them records they decide to issue an alert. They must provide warnings in a manner to the general public including prediction and time of arrival of the ocean waves. The committee that monitors sea level variations and seismic activity are essential to the warning process. This is all done in real time. All methodologies are inexact and must be done quickly and efficiently to be of any value. All 39 DART locations maintained and operated by NOAA’s National Data Buoy Center (NDBC) monitor and record seismic wave noise and movement in the earth all trying to alert the people in these highly populated areas of a pending disaster. A network of seismometers, tidal gauges and ocean buoys deployed to show movement under the sea, the tremors that generate tsunamis, improved communications to reach the correct governments and then the government having the means to warn its people in an amount of time that they can respond and get to safety.
Technology has its limits, while data surely helps countries hours away from an approaching tsunami, there is still is very little that satellites and around-the-clock command centers can do for hundreds of thousands of people living in vulnerable coastal communities. It's easy to put in high-tech sensors that can detect a tsunami in open ocean soon after it's formed but what is preparing the infrastructure for the magnitude of what is on the way. Educating people on how to react and get themselves to safety. The new system is ideal for countries which have several hours to prepare but the alerts are of little use for coastal residents living on the path of subduction zones a place where two tectonic plates collide, areas in the ‘ring of fire’ an area with high seismic activity around the Pacific Ocean, offshore of Washington, Canada, Alaska, Russia, Japan and Indonesia.
When the tsunami is generated close to shore the first waves can reach shoreline in just a few minutes after the earthquake is felt, little time to evacuate. When the tsunami is generated close to shore, it takes time for the information to be analyzed and for the message to go out to disaster preparedness personnel, for the authorities in the cities to start the evacuations. There have also been huge efforts at making communities more resilient, as part of the $14 billion spent on post-tsunami reconstruction over the last 10 years. Along with nearly 250,000 new homes - many of them earthquake-proof - built across the area, many towns, have cellphone coverage allowing them to receive mobile alerts. Asphalt roads have replaced dirt paths and signs advising of tsunami zones and evacuation routes. Where alert systems don't reach local level, governments are finding innovative ways to get the word out. A tsunami can kill or injure people and damage or destroy buildings and infrastructure as waves come in and go out. A tsunami is a series of enormous ocean waves caused by earthquakes, underwater landslides, volcanic eruptions, or asteroids. In the open ocean tsunamis can travel up to 500 miles per hour with waves 10-100 feet high. Cause flooding and disrupt transportation, power, communications, and water supply. They can happen anywhere along US coasts. Coasts that border the Pacific Ocean or the Caribbean have the greatest risk. Real-time data can generally be achieved only with very special sampling and transmission protocols. So, while faraway coasts might have several hours of advance warning, coastal areas near the epicenter of a tsunami-triggering quake can devastated within minutes.
Technology can only go so far, strong shaking in a coastal community may still be the most effective tsunami alert. The beast warning of a tsunami is the earthquake itself. It’s not very accurate but the bigger the earthquake the larger the chance of a tsunami but you wouldn’t know if or how large.
In conclusion, people on the beach or in low coastal areas need to be aware that a tsunami could arrive within minutes after any large earthquake and they should quickly move away from the shoreline to higher ground. If the surrounding area is flat, move further inland. Use a radio with you when you go to the beach. You may only have minutes to realize what is happening around you, respond, evacuate and get yourself to safety.
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