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October – December 2011
7
SPC SOPAC Division in Support of
Tsunami Preparations at Pacific Level
Elizabeth Whippy
joined the Division
initially as an attaché in 1998 before
taking on the role of Global Information
Systems (GIS) and Remote sensing
Project Officer in September 2000.
Elizabeth was working for a Taiwan
funded project which targeted watershed
management when she resigned on
December 2011 to go and work for Lion
One Limited as a GIS specialist and to set
up their GIS System.
GOOD BYES
Federica ‘Kika’ Gerber
commenced
work as a resource economist under the
ODI scheme in October 2009. Kika had
a Bachelor of Science in Environmental
Policy and Economics from the London
School of Economics and a Master of
Science in Environmental and Resource
Economics from University College,
London. She departed in October 2011
and is now working with a British-
based consultancy, Maplecroft, which
works to assess the impact of social,
environmental and political issues on
strategic decision making, business
continuity and reputation.
Sakaio Manoa
commenced work
at SOPAC in early 2004 as System
Administration Project Officer I. He then
progressed to the position of Adviser
in Information, Communication and
Technology in 2055 before jumping onto
the role of a Systems Support Engineer
in 2011. Sakaio holds a Bachelor of
Information Technology and a Diploma in
Business Studies (Applied Computing).
Sakaio left in December 2011 to further
his studies in Australia.
Tasleem Hasan
joined SOPAC in
April 2005. He headed the Regional
Water Quality Monitoring Programme
which was implemented from 2006 to
2009. The programme built the local
capacity of SOPAC member countries
in the field of water quality monitoring
in terms of laboratory analysis and data
storage. Before joining SOPAC, he was
a Scientific Officer at the Institute of
Applied Sciences at the University of the
South Pacific (USP). Tasleem resigned in
November 2011 to emigrate to Australia
and is now working as a Senior Project Officer in the Office of the
Water Supply Regulator in the Department of Environment and
Resource Management in Brisbane.
Elizabeth Whippy
Sakaio Manoa
Federica ‘Kika’ Gerber
Tasleem Hasan
About 75 percent of the world’s earthquakes
and tsunami occur in the Pacific. On average,
the Pacific has a tsunami every year, with a major
Pacific-wide tsunami occurring a few times each
century. Three destructive and deadly tsunami
have occurred in the Pacific in the last three
years: Samoa (2009), Chile (2010) and Japan in
2011.
Hence, a Pacific wide exercise to test and
improve the emergency response to tsunami
took place on November 20, 2011 with 20
Pacific islands countries, including Australia and
New Zealand, running simulations and drills.
This was the third international tsunami warning
exercise, the first two having occurred in 2006
and 2008.
Known as Pacific Wave 11, the exercise asked
countries to pick one of 10 regional or local
tsunami scenarios to react to. The hypothetical
tsunami were created by powerful earthquakes
off the shores of either Russia, Ryukyu Islands,
west and east of the Philippines, Vanuatu, Tonga,
Chile, Ecuador, Central America, and Aleutian
Islands. Fiji, for instance, based their scenario
on a magnitude 8.9 earthquake in the Tonga
Trench, while Palau based theirs on a massive
earthquake in the Philippine Trench.
After receiving the simulation warnings,
authorities in the countries involved tested all the
necessary steps to respond to a warning prior
to informing the public. In some countries, this
will be followed by coastal evacuations and other
on-the-ground activities as part of an end-to-end
tsunami warning and response practice.
On-the-ground activities in Fiji included the
evacuation of 20 schools located within Suva’s
tsunami danger zone. The exercise involved
11,350 students and test the emergency
evacuation plans of schools and emergency
agencies.
Noa Tokavou, Disaster Management Advisor
at the SPC/SOPAC Division, said simulation
exercises like Pacific Wave 11 helped countries
be better prepared for such disasters.
“The exercise will further improve countries’
ability to respond to an alert and improve
regional coordination in the event of a tsunami,”
Mr Tokavou said.
SOPAC has supported Pacific island countries in
developing tsunami response plans.
Pacific island countries and territories involved in
the exercise included: American Samoa, Cook
Islands, Guam, Federated States of Micronesia,
Fiji, Kiribati, Marshall Islands, Niue, Northern
Mariana Islands, Palau, Papua New Guinea,
Samoa, Solomon Islands, Tokelau, Tonga, Tuvalu
and Vanuatu.