Officials are concerned about confusion with Alaska’s tsunami warning system

Confusion about the emergency alert Alaskans in areas not at potential tsunami risk received after a major earthquake over the weekend could shake public confidence in the warning system, local officials said.

A 7.2-magnitude earthquake about 111 kilometers south of Sand Point triggered a brief tsunami warning in parts of southern Alaska late Saturday, prompting people to evacuate from low-lying areas. The Anchorage Daily News reported that people as far away as Anchorage also received tsunami alerts on their phones, even though they were not at risk of a tsunami.

A warning issued by the National Tsunami Warning Center late Saturday covered an area about 64 kilometers southwest of Homer to an area about 128.7 kilometers northeast of Unalaska. It was later downgraded to advisory and then cancelled.

Emergency managers and tsunami scientists said they were following their systems erring on the side of caution and speed. But others worry that confusion about whether a tsunami poses a real danger could erode public confidence in the warning system.

“Here’s our concern: We’re going to have a roaring wolf situation where people will no longer heed a warning and they won’t evacuate,” Homer’s police chief, Mark Rubel, said. Dispatchers there received “hundreds of phone calls an hour” after the warning was issued.

A large earthquake can release energy that can lead to a destructive wave. When sensitive tools capture such an event, an automated alert goes off. There is no time to immediately check if such a wave is forming, said James Gridley, director of the National Tsunami Warning Center in Palmer.

“We are issuing a warning immediately because we need to remove anyone in the immediate area from danger immediately,” he said.

Then scientists with the center reviewed data from the buoys and other instruments to determine if a wave was forming, and what its size was, Gridley said. Warnings are being reviewed or revoked, he said, though that part of the response could take about an hour.

Alerts from the center can also trigger local emergency responses, such as the sounding of a siren urging residents to seek higher ground.

Emergency manager Brenda Ahlberg said the Kenai Peninsula sounded tsunami sirens. Many in the area have also received notifications via mobile phone. Wireless Emergency Alerts are sent to anyone in a geographic area to specific cell phone towers in widely identifiable areas – which is why people in Anchorage receive notifications.

Although alerts are a way to reach people quickly, wide notification areas can mean people get alerts when they don’t need them. Gridley said efforts are underway to better improve the system.

Ahlberg said the Kenai Peninsula can currently only deploy its sirens at the level of its system, but plans to install a new tsunami siren system nearby that will allow accurate warnings to each individual community.

“Is it unfortunate that they were false alarms, or is it fortunate that we were able to deploy the system, keep people out of harm’s way, and then realize it wasn’t necessary?” she asked.

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