L.A. County supervisors to consider motion to explore tsunami siren warning system
Two Los Angeles County supervisors are interested in developing an emergency siren warning system along the Southern California coast to warn the public about incoming tsunamis.
Supervisors Zev Yaroslavsky and Don Knabe have introduced a motion to ask the county Office of Emergency Management about the feasibility of developing a tsunami emergency siren warning system.
Supervisors are scheduled to vote on the motion Tuesday.
Experts say Southern California could see significant tsunamis caused by a faraway quake off Alaska or by undersea landslides spurred by earthquakes off California’s shore.
John Orcutt, a geophysics professor at Scripps Institution of Oceanography at UC San Diego, has previously told The Times that people on beaches or living near the coastline should immediately head to higher ground after an earthquake as a precaution against tsunamis.
Crescent City, Calif., near the Oregon border, which has a history of damage from tsunamis, had tsunami sirens sound on March 11, hours before the first damaging waves generated by the magnitude 9.0 earthquake in Japan hit the harbor.
That town appeared to be successfully evacuated, although one man who violated the evacuation order to take photographs of the incoming tsunami drowned.
The Santa Barbara County Office of Emergency Services said Friday that it was installing 150 signs warning beach and coast visitors that they were entering a tsunami hazard zone.
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-- Rong-Gong Lin II
Photo: The harbor at Crescent City on March 12, one day after it was struck by a tsunami caused by the earthquake in Japan. Credit: USCG Petty Officer 1st Class J.J. Winston / EPA
EDITOR'S PICKS:
Yeah.....whos gonna pay for this? Oh, I know! The middle class and poor!! Wouldnt want to upset the fat cats...
Posted by: JZ | March 28, 2011 at 03:20 PM
Another freakin waste of taxpayer money.
1. People who live near the beach, KNOW the RISKS.
2. Civil Defense Sirens, already in place, would do nicely.
3. Places such as Crescent City, Santa Cruz and Santa Barbara, are in a zone where water is already a problem, when a tsunami hits, somewhere on the other side of the globe.
How about Don Knabe and Zev pay off some of the bonds or general obligations first, instaed of funding studies in which the facts are already known?
Posted by: Steven M. | March 29, 2011 at 01:10 PM
Another knee jerk solution to a problem......Heck we have more of a chance of a tsunami from our decrepit and antiquidated Water System..how about using the money for that?
Posted by: doug | March 29, 2011 at 02:08 PM