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| Tsunami Awareness Kits (pictured above) were delivered last month to the South Pacific Applied Geoscience Commission in Fiji. PDC and its partner organizations will facilitate application of the Kit in other Pacific Islands. |
The extraordinary devastation and destruction brought by the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami served as a wakeup call for coastal communities around the globe. For the peoples of the Pacific Island countries, this catastrophe is particularly significant--and reminiscent of the 1998 Aitape tsunami, when a locally-generated event claimed over 2,200 lives in Papua New Guinea. The tsunami-prone Pacific Islands region's remoteness, small population, and fragile infrastructure makes it particularly vulnerable.
In the aftermath of Aitape, the Pacific Disaster Center has been closely collaborating with organizations including the South Pacific Applied Geoscience Commission (SOPAC), the International Tsunami Information Centre (ITIC), and the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission's International Coordination Group for the Tsunami Warning System in the Pacific (ICG/ITSU) to develop a "Tsunami Awareness Kit"--a tailored collection of resources to help Pacific Island countries prepare for the deadly and destructive potential of tsunamis.
The Kit is one of many "hazard awareness" efforts currently underway in the global community to help protect lives and property from future catastrophes.
"There is a great need for public education programs to inform and empower communities to take actions that better prepare them for the deadly potential of tsunamis," says PDC Hazard Mitigation Specialist Sharon Mielbrecht, who presented the Kit at the SOPAC-sponsored Regional Planning Workshop Enhancing Early Warning for Pacific Island Countries held in Fiji in September. "The Kit is intended to help disaster management officials, community leaders, and residents alike to understand the dangers of tsunamis, and prepare their communities."
As PDC conveyed to leaders throughout the Pacific Islands earlier this year, the Kit provides information that communities and other stakeholders can use to both respond to and reduce their overall vulnerabilities to tsunamis and to develop "country specific" educational and policy relevant materials.
Composed of a wide variety of resources including maps, booklets, checklists, brochures, reference materials, visualization products, and movie clips, the Kit's contents are packaged in several formats. Target audiences include Pacific Island disaster managers, as well as government and community leaders, business owners, and educators.
Support for the Kit was solidified during SOPAC's 12th Regional Disaster Management Meeting held in Madang, Papua New Guinea earlier this year. During these sessions, PDC briefed the concept of the Kit to key stakeholders throughout the region and solicited vital feedback.
Concludes Mielbrecht, "We are extremely appreciative of the close collaboration with regional and national organizations throughout the Pacific Islands that has resulted in developing this important product. While an initial Kit was created using Fiji as an example, we hope that it will be used as a template for raising tsunami awareness in other Pacific Islands."
For more information, contact Sharon Mielbrecht at smielbrecht@pdc.org.
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| Members of the Tsunami Awareness Kit "Design Committee," at a working group meeting on Maui in May. From left: Lasarusa Vuetibau, Fiji Mineral Resources Department; Lawrence Anton, Papua New Guinea Geophysical Observatory; Stan Goosby, PDC; Dr. Stuart Weinstein, NOAA NWS Pacific Tsunami Warning Center (PTWC); Sharon Mielbrecht, PDC; Charley Douglas Takae, Vanuatu Bureau of Mineral Resources; Dr. George Curtis, Affiliate Professor, University of Hawaii, Hilo. Also participating in the Design Committee: the International Tsunami Information Centre (ITIC)--Programme Office of the United Nations Environmental, Scientific and Cultural Organization's International Oceanographic Commission (UNESCO IOC). |
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