Tsunami Warning, Education, and Research Act of 2014

Floor Speech

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Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

I rise in support of H.R. 5309, the Tsunami Warning, Education, and Research Act of 2014.

Mr. Speaker, I want to thank the gentleman from California (Mr. Rohrabacher) for cosponsoring this bipartisan legislation with me. I also want to thank the chairman and ranking member of the Science, Space, and Technology Committee, Mr. Smith and Ms. Johnson of Texas, for their support in moving this bill forward.

I also would like to thank the hardworking staff, my personal staff, Mr. Rohrabacher's staff, and the dedicated committee staff on both sides of the aisle for their help with this bill.

Finally, I would like to thank the State and local emergency management officials, coastal zone managers, and the many scientists and other experts who have contributed their ideas to the development of this bill.

I have met with coastal community groups and emergency planners in my district who are working on a number of fronts to prepare their communities for earthquake and tsunami events.

So much of our ability to prepare, respond, and recover from a tsunami will depend on awareness, planning, and mobilization at the local level. From the Federal agencies all the way down to local emergency managers, we all agree that adequately preparing communities across the country for the threat of natural disasters is of vital importance to the future of this country.

The Tsunami Warning, Education, and Research Act of 2014 is an important step toward making sure that our coastal communities are ready to face the dangers posed by tsunami threats.

In 2004, the Sumatra-Andaman earthquake in Southeast Asia triggered a deadly tsunami event that claimed the lives of hundreds of thousands of people from Indonesia to the coast of Madagascar, prompting Congress to enact the Tsunami Warning and Education Act of 2006.

We were reminded of the significant threat that a tsunami poses to U.S. coastal communities 3 years ago when the Tohoku earthquake near Japan created a devastating tsunami event. That tsunami resulted in the tragic loss of human life and billions of dollars of economic damage, which made it one of the costliest natural disasters we have ever seen, and its damage reached as far as the west coast of the United States--California and Oregon, to be specific.

The events in Indonesia and Japan underscore the importance of this legislation and why we must prepare and protect our coastal communities from similar events.

Maritime commercial activities, vibrant tourist industries, and more than 120 million Americans are all part of the rich coastal U.S. economy, an economy that contributed close to half of the entire U.S. GDP in 2011.

The commercial fishing industry alone supports about 1 million jobs, and the international trade associated with coastal and marine fisheries contributes close to $70 billion annually to the U.S. economy. Likewise, more than 13 million Americans work at our commercial ports. They help to move the more than $1 trillion worth of goods and products to the shelves of our local stores.

These examples show that investing in the resiliency of coastal communities is important to the economic health of not just these regions, but to the Nation. Ensuring that these coastal communities, big and small, have the resources and knowledge necessary to protect these critical aspects from the threat of a tsunami and be prepared, should one occur, is simply good and prudent policy.

Because this body collectively provides assistance when there is a natural disaster, like Superstorm Sandy, for example, planning and preparation to avoid or minimize damage and destruction is important for all of us, whether or not we represent a coastal district.

Oregonians are aware of the threat that a tsunami would pose to their communities, and cities up and down the coast have responded by installing warning sirens and developing evacuation routes, but as newer warning technologies develop and more is understood about the areas that will be hit the hardest, a coordinated effort is required to update preparation and response.

In Tillamook County, Oregon, for example, they recently decided that warning sirens were not the way of the future, favoring the use of warning residents through social media and by phone instead.

Seaside, a small coastal town in my district, has been identified as the most vulnerable community to tsunami on the Oregon coast. In Seaside, local leaders and organizations are proactively educating residents and visitors about tsunami evacuation routes, storage supply locations, and emergency communication systems.

At the Federal level, we can help these communities understand the risks and seriousness of the threats they face and work with them to be prepared, which is why I sponsored this bill, along with my colleague, the gentleman from California (Mr. Rohrabacher).

H.R. 5309 will update and reauthorize the Tsunami Warning and Education Act and will help to ensure that local and regional decisionmakers have the tools and information they need to develop mitigation and response plans to this ever-present threat and to communicate these plans to the public in an effective and efficient manner.

For distant tsunami events, this legislation will advance research efforts related to improving tsunami forecasting, protection, and notification which could mean extra minutes for emergency responders on the ground and translate into lives saved and tragedies avoided, and it adds ports and harbor operations as entities to be safeguarded by tsunami forecasting capabilities.

This bill will also support research needed to improve our understanding of local tsunami events. A local tsunami, one that is generated just off the coast, has a travel time of about 30 minutes or less.

That is the kind of tsunami most likely to have widespread and devastating impacts on the U.S. coast and on the Caribbean. In Oregon, we know that a catastrophic Cascadia earthquake and tsunami will occur someday. Although no one can predict the next time the Cascadia fault will rupture, we can and must prepare.

At a recent Coastal Caucus event in Florence, Oregon, State-elected officials, tribal governments, community leaders, and business owners attended a panel discussion that focused on the threat posed by tsunami and how we are updating our response plans to reflect new understandings of subduction zone tsunami events. One thing everyone on the panel agreed on: it is not a matter of if, but when.

We have already learned a lot about how to prepare for, mitigate, and respond to tsunamis. I have no doubt that the progress we have made through NOAA's efforts under the Tsunami Warning and Education Act has enhanced the safety of our communities and will save lives, and this good work must be continued.

The coastlines of the United States already play an integral role in the economic prosperity of this country, and we must strengthen their preparedness and resiliency, so they can continue to play that role going forward. In this bipartisan bill, we recognize the need for continued protection of our coastal communities from the impacts of tsunami.

In closing, I want to say that September is National Preparedness Month. It is a reminder to everyone to make disaster preparedness a priority.

I urge my colleagues to support this bill. I hope we can further this discussion and continue to find ways to build America's resiliency to tsunami and other natural disasters.

Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

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