Experts warn White House's budget cuts could make tsunami warnings less reliable

"There was a time not that long ago in the United States when the federal government did not warn people about tsunamis in the aftermath of earthquakes. We learned the hard way - after a deadly wave traveled all the way across the Pacific - why we needed to invest in such a system. MIKE WEST: It was started in 1946, after an earthquake from Alaska killed 150 people in Hawaii."

"West directs an organization called the Alaska Earthquake Center. When there's an earthquake, he and his staff measure it and interpret seismic data from different geophysical monitoring stations all over Alaska. Then they feed real-time information to the federal government to help predict when and where exactly the tsunami will be. This year, he says, he was waiting on the payment of $300,000 in federal money. He didn't hear the funding was canceled until the last minute."

"The earthquake he's describing about 60 years ago was 8.6 in magnitude. After it happened, the government created a warning system. Earthquakes are not generally foreseeable, but the deadly tsunamis that often result can be predicted. Today, there are two federal centers dedicated to issuing tsunami warnings, one in Hawaii and one in Alaska. WEST: Their mission is very simple. It is to issue accurate and fast warnings about impending tsunamis."

Millions of people along the Pacific Northwest, Hawaii and Alaska coasts rely on tsunami warnings to receive rapid alerts of potentially dangerous waves. The United States established a warning system after a 1946 Alaska earthquake and deadly tsunami, and federal centers in Hawaii and Alaska now issue fast, accurate warnings. The Alaska Earthquake Center measures and interprets seismic data from statewide monitoring stations and provides real-time information used to predict tsunami timing and location. A planned $300,000 federal payment to support seismic data collection in Alaska was canceled at the last minute, raising expert concern that budget cuts could undermine warning reliability.

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