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The Virgin Islands Territorial Emergency Management Agency (VITEMA), on Wednesday, installed tsunami warning sirens at Canegata Ballpark and the Government Parking Lot at Christiansted in the final leg of the first-phase installation of the Territory’s new Tsunami Warning Siren System.
“This system is critical to improving our ability to quickly warn our communities about all types of hazards that are impacting our area – not only tsunamis but also earthquakes, hurricanes and flooding,” said VITEMA Director Elton Lewis. “With catastrophic events happening across the globe, we are acutely aware that this type of system is critical for the Virgin Islands, which sits in an active seismic zone and is vulnerable to hurricanes.”
On Wednesday, a VI Water and Power Authority crew and local subcontractor Bronx Communication braved rainy weather to mount sirens onto poles, to set the poles into the ground and to test the embedded speakers. Communities and businesses surrounding the Canegata Ballpark and the Government Parking Lot in Christiansted would have heard both tone and voice tests of the system in the early morning to mid-afternoon hours on Wednesday.
The electronic tone and voice dual-power sirens are capable of providing tone audible up to a mile-and-a-half away and intelligible pre-recorded messages or live public addresses up to 900 feet. The sirens come equipped with a dual power source, which means the primary source of energy for the units will be solar, however, in the event of low sunlight the units will automatically switch to WAPA-generated power.
Lewis thanked WAPA Executive Director Hugo Hodge, Jr. who agreed to donate and install the poles on which the units are mounted and to connect the poles to WAPA’s grid, which is providing a significant cost-savings for the project.
On Thursday, WAPA and Bronx Communication will complete the final installations on St. Croix, barring any unforeseen circumstances such as inclement weather. The final two sirens for Phase 1 of the project are set to be installed near the Legislative Building in Frederiksted and on Emancipation Drive at Mars Hill, Frederiksted. Once the sirens have been placed, Bronx Communication will test the audio and voice capability of those sirens.
VITEMA kicked off the installation project on May 13 in the St. Thomas and then moved a few weeks later to St. John. On St. Thomas sirens have been erected at the Cyril E. King Airport, Griffith Park, Yacht Haven Sugar Mill and the Red Hook Marina. On Friday, sirens also were dropped into the ground in the area of the Guy Benjamin School at Coral Bay and at the Winston Wells Park at Cruz Bay on St. John.
At the end of the installation, VITEMA will tie the Tsunami Siren Warning System into both the VI Alert mass notification system and the Emergency Alert System (EAS), to create a redundancy in how the community is notified of imminent danger. VI Alert is a portal for emergency management agencies such as the National Weather Service and the Alaska Tsunami Warning Center, to issue life safety information via e-mail, fax and text messages, and the EAS broadcasts emergency alerts by radio and television. The tie-in of the system to VI Alert also allows the sirens to be automatically triggered, for instance, if a tsunami warning is issued by the Alaska Tsunami Warning Center.
With the first phase installation near completion, VITEMA is now preparing to conduct a territorywide test of the first round of sirens before the 2011 hurricane season kicks into high hear. The test will determine whether the siren system, VI Alert and EAS will properly and simultaneously activate to issues emergency information.
VITEMA is also readying for the second-phase installation, however, the site locations are pending the outcome of VITEMA’s effort to encourage hoteliers to purchase sirens.
“If hoteliers do purchase their own sirens this essentially would allow VITEMA to expand the system’s coverage of the Territory. Our ultimate goal is to blanket the Territory and ensure that everyone can hear the sirens when they activate to issue a warning,” Lewis said.
The Tsunami Warning Siren System installation project is the culmination of efforts by the
de Jongh Administration to better prepare the Territory for all hazards and to address gaps in how the public is notified of a life-threatening event. VITEMA, with guidance from Gov. John P. de Jongh Jr., has shifted its focus from solely hurricane and storm preparedness to readiness for all types of hazards.
In early 2010, VITEMA was able to secure $300,000 in homeland security grant funding for the project and was appropriated an additional $40,000 by the 28th Legislature for tsunami preparedness. With the funding in hand, VITEMA purchased 10 sirens – four each for St. Thomas and St. Croix, and two for St. John. VITEMA has been awarded another $300,000 in homeland security grant funding to complete the second phase of the project.
In November 2010, VITEMA hired Missouri-based American Signal Corp., to manufacture the sirens and implement the long-awaited tsunami warning system in the Virgin Islands. American Signal Corp. has been manufacturing and installing warning system since 1942, and recently completed similar projects in Thailand, Sri Lanka and St. Martin. In December, company representatives met with the Territorial Tsunami Working Group to discuss how the system would work in the Territory and to pinpoint potential sites for installation. The working group — comprised of representatives of various government entities — was created by VITEMA to help the Virgin Islands reach Tsunami-Ready status.
For more information about the Tsunami Warning Siren System visit
www.VITEMA.gov/tsunami.
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