(see March 26 posts for report on a visit to the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center)
The danger for one-topic web logs like this one is that they end up saying the same thing a couple hundred times, with variations here and there. The topic here concerns ensuring that the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center has common-sense media-contact policies that save lives, so I don't mind if you don't.
Here's the heart of the issue, as posted since March 26: Do policies actually exist that prohibit the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center from using the mass media to transmit urgent warnings to countries and populations thousands of miles away? Hard as it may be to believe, that's what I was told by the Center's director during my March 25 visit.
A list of questions prompted by that visit is now headed to NOAA Administrator Conrad Lautenbacher, Jr. Here's the letter:
Dear Admiral Lautenbacher:
On March 25 I visited the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center at the invitation of its director, Dr. Charles McCreery. I have been writing for the past three months (see web log address above) regarding the absence of a media strategy to issue a tsunami warning to the Indian Ocean region following the December earthquake.
I'm aware that the region is outside the Center's traditional area of responsibility; however, the tremendous loss of life seemingly calls for a policy review and change that would ensure the involvement of major international news media in the issuance of tsunami warnings to populations in peril many thousands of miles away.
Since news organizations such as the Associated Press, CNN, Reuters and the BBC have worldwide networks and are equipped to transmit information quickly, their involvement soon after the December earthquake quite likely could have alerted some Indian Ocean nations to the onrushing tsunami in time to save lives.
Dr. McCreery responded to my inquiries about the absence of a proactive media-contact strategy (i.e., no telephone calls with urgent messages) by saying the National Weather Service “won't allow” such contact. He said the Center would not want to exclude some media in making a limited number of calls. I did not argue the issue but could have noted that the media routinely engage in “pools” to cover events.
If a policy truly does exist that inhibits the rapid transmission of tsunami warnings using the news media, I urge you to personally revoke it. Dr. McCreery's assertion raises other questions about NOAA's media strategy and policies that have been asked by numerous sources since December, and I respectfully ask that your office address the following:
(see April 3 post for the questions)
You and I and everyone else concerned about tsunami warnings have the same goal - to save lives - yet nothing the PTWC knew or did in December achieved that goal. As I wrote in a letter to The Honolulu Advertiser published on December 30, the Indian Ocean tsunami deserves as much reflection as people of goodwill can possibly give it. To do anything less than an exhaustive after-action analysis would be both irresponsible and disrespectful to the dead.
Doug Carlson
Honolulu, HI
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