‘Warning systems needed’

The Pacific Basin Development Council is calling on the U.S. Congress to include volcanic monitoring system in its global warning system initiatives to ensure the safety of lives.

“As implementation of this global warning system proceeds, we also encourage incorporating volcanic monitoring in the array. As denizens within the Ring of Fire, unmonitored eruptions of some of the most dangerous U.S. volcanoes are a very urgent concern,” said PBDC president and CNMI Gov. Juan N. Babauta.

In a recent letter addressed to U.S. Sen. Daniel K. Inouye and U.S. Reps. Sherwood Boehlert and Jay Inslee, Babauta said that “inclusion of this tsunami-generating hazard into this warning system would seem prudent.”

PBDC, which consists of Guam, Hawaii, American Samoa, and the CNMI, said it supports increased warning infrastructure such as deep-ocean buoys, new sensors, sophisticated seismic equipment, and monitoring support.

“We also believe community preparedness, public education and outreach, and comprehensive hazard mitigation, including coastal mapping, are vital to an effective warning system,” Babauta said.

He said that last year’s devastating Asian tsunami highlighted the greater need for warning systems.

Earlier, Washington Rep. Pete A. Tenorio also wrote the U.S. Congress to lobby for funding to ensure a reliable volcanic activity monitoring system in the CNMI.

In a letter to U.S. Rep. Don Young, Tenorio said the CNMI urgently needs funding for a comprehensive volcano monitoring system for all active volcanoes in the Northern Marianas.

Young chairs the U.S. House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure.

Both Babauta and Tenorio noted the threat “to the many aircraft that cross the Pacific daily.”

Tenorio said that, of the nine active volcanoes in the CNMI, Anatahan is the only monitored volcano. As such, eruptions on any of the others could happen without warning. He said such activity might be a potential cause for earthquakes and tsunamis.

“The recent tragedy in South Asia caused by an Indonesian island earthquake and tsunami reminds us that any coastal area is susceptible to such natural occurrences, and only through monitoring in our immediate area can early warning be reliable and instantaneous,” said Tenorio.