[Congressional Record Volume 148, Number 12 (Tuesday, February 12, 2002)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E130]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




         AUTHORIZE A NATIONAL TSUNAMI HAZARD MITIGATION PROGRAM

                                 ______
                                 

                       HON. ENI F.H. FALEOMAVAEGA

                           of american samoa

                    in the house of representatives

                       Tuesday, February 12, 2002

  Mr. FALEOMAVAEGA. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to introduce legislation 
to authorize a national tsunami hazard mitigation program for all 
United States coastal States and insular areas.
  Tsunamis are waves generated by vertical movement of a large mass of 
ocean water. The word ``tsunami'' is Japanese and means wave in a 
harbor. Generally, an earthquake will have to be stronger than a 
magnitude 7.0 to generate a tsunami, and not all large earthquakes 
generate tsunamis. Tsunamis can be caused by vertical movement of the 
ocean floor, landslides into or under the water, volcanoes, and large 
meteorites.
  Tsunamis can have a destructive impact near their point of origin, or 
far from their origin. In the open ocean, a tsunami will pass through a 
given point as a small to moderate wave, but as the water becomes more 
shallow the destructive force increases. It is in harbors and other 
low-lying coastal areas that tsunamis do the most devastation.
  The Pacific region average about three destructive tsunamis per 
century. In recent history, there have been three Alaska earthquakes 
which generated destructive tsunamis. In 1946, a tsunami was over 100 
feet high on Unimak Island; in 1958, a tsunami was over 1700 feet high 
in Lituya Bay; and in 1964, a tsunami was over 200 feet high in Shoup 
Bay. In Hawaii, significant tsunamis have occurred in 1868 and 1975.
  In an effort to mitigate the hazards caused by tsunamis in the 
Pacific, in 1994 the Senate Committee on Appropriations directed the 
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) to establish a 
Pacific tsunami hazard mitigation program. Since then the program has 
developed to the extent that there are two tsunami warning centers, one 
in Alaska, and one in Hawaii. Based on information gathered at these 
two centers from data collected from around the region, tsunami 
warnings are broadcast throughout the Pacific.
  The primary duties of the two tsunami warning centers are to provide 
tsunami warnings, help coastal communities prepare for future tsunamis 
through mapping of areas of potential inundation and community 
education, and to improve the timeliness and accuracy of the warnings 
through research and development.
  The legislation I am introducing today will expand this program to 
include the coastal states on the Pacific, Atlantic and Gulf coasts, 
and all of the inhabited territories of the United States. I believe 
this is necessary assistance which should be provided to our coastal 
communities. Through effective planning and timely warnings, this 
program will pay for itself with a significant reduction in federal 
disaster assistance costs.
  I urge my colleagues to support this bill and ask that it be given 
prompt consideration by the committee of jurisdiction.

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