NOAA Administrator Conrad Lautenbacher Jr. held his press conference in Honolulu yesterday and predictably circled the wagons around the Pacific Tsunami Warning center.
Lautenbacher congratulated the Center for its post-earthquake performance and sidestepped criticism the Center didn't do enough to warn Indian Ocean nations. He asserted the Center's mission is confined to issuing alerts to Pacific Rim countries.
Lautenbacher repeated NOAA's ongoing commentary that south Asia nations weren't preapred to receive an effective tsunami warning even after scientists suspected one had been generated. "It takes two people to make a warning work. You have to have a receptive audience on the other end," he said. "What we do is provide the front end. We broadcast it and the other side has to be set up to receive it. If they're not set up to receive it or do not have people on station to do that, then obviously the warning will not work."
It's as if the retired admiral has never heard of "the power of radio." This blog's author noted that the Center did not transmit the alert to and through the major news media when it first suspected a tsunami -- more than an hour before it ripped into Sri Lanka and India. "They did not do everything they could and should have. They had a responsibility as the world's leading authority on tsunami information and warning to do more. If the message doesn't get through, the sender has failed."
It's clear NOAA is not inclined to accept criticism being directed at it from sources around the world. Therefore, a better tactic may be to suggest a program to improve NOAA's communications protocols, as will be done shortly in another post to this site.
Doug Carlson
Honolulu, HI
January 12, 2005
www.DougCarlsonCommunications.com
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