March 15, 2005
ENS
HONOLULU, Hawaii - Tsunami survivors and relatives of victims are suing the federal agency that operates the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center on the Hawaiian island of Oahu, claiming the center did not do enough to warn people about the disaster. The center is one of two operated by the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).
The lawsuit was filed last week in federal district court in New York by at least 58 European survivors and family members of victims.
The plaintiffs allege the center could have done more to warn 11 Indian Ocean nations hit by the tsunami. The giant wave resulted from a severe undersea earthquake of 9.0 magnitude December 26, 2004 which left nearly 300,000 people dead or missing and presumed dead.
Named as defendants are NOAA, the Government of Thailand, the Thai Meteorological Department and the Accor group, the French owner of the Sofitel hotel chain, which owns a beachfront hotel in Phuket, Thailand.
Attorney Edward Fagan, who represents the plaintiffs, became known as one of the attorneys suing Swiss banks and German corporations for profiting from Holocaust victims' assets and forced labor. The banks and corporations settled the suits for more than $6 billion.
The lawsuit accuses the Thai government of destroying evidence that will prove officials knew of the approaching tsunami but decided not to issue a warning out of fear that the country's tourism industry would be harmed.
The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center monitors seismic and ocean conditions in the Pacific Basin and issues warnings to member nations around the Pacific Rim.
NOAA officials declined to comment on the complaint. But during a visit to the Pacific Tsunami Center in January, NOAA Administrator Conrad Lautenbacher praised the managers of the center for their response to the tsunami and explained that the center is only equipped to warn nations within its group of Pacific rim members.
Australia and Indonesia and the only Indian Ocean nations that are members of the Oahu based warning center. The Indian Ocean has no oceanwide tsunami detection system, and no warning system.
Pacific Tsunami Warning Center chief Charles McCreery told reporters that by the time his staff learned that the earthquake has generated a tsunami, it was already on the news.
"We talked to the State Department Operations Center and to the military. We called embassies. We talked to the navy in Sri Lanka, any local government official we could get hold of," Barry Hirshorn, one of the geophysicists, said in December.
The Bush administration's $37.5 million plan for a global tsunami monitoring system announced in January would increase the number of scientists keeping watch at the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center.
The center also would be able to assess more quickly whether a tsunami warning is necessary, said Robert Cessaro, a geophysicist at the center. Currently, five scientists are on call.
http://www.ens-newswire.com/ens/mar2005/2005-03-14-09.asp#anchor2