Daily News Photo by SEAN McCOY A new tsunami warning siren sits ready to be installed on Friday near Veterans Drive on St. Thomas.

Installation of tsunami warning sirens under way

ST. THOMAS - The first tsunami warning sirens went up Friday near King Airport on St. Thomas.

V.I. Territorial Emergency Management Agency officials said the installation is the start of a two-phase project.

"On Friday we placed the first warning siren into the ground kicking off our long-anticipated Tsunami Warning Siren System installation project," VITEMA Director Elton Lewis said in a written statement. "This project is a significant step forward in our emergency alert and notification capability. The Virgin Islands is one of the most seismically active areas in the world and we know that in there is potential for local tsunami, where we have only minutes to react."

VITEMA's contractor, American Signal Corp. - and its local representative, Bronx Communication - along with the V.I. Water and Power Authority will spend the next few weeks mounting three additional sirens on St. Thomas.

When the project is complete, there will be two sirens on St. John, and four each on St. Croix and St. Thomas. The 10 sirens are the first part of what officials hope will become a tsunami siren warning system that will blanket the territory.

The siren system has a control panel, and each unit comprises four electronic tone and voice sirens. Each siren is capable of emitting a tone that can be heard up to a mile away and pre-recorded messages or live public addresses that can be heard and understood up to 2,000 feet away, according to VITEMA.

The three remaining siren sites on St. Thomas include Griffith Ballpark, Yacht Haven Sugar Mill and the Red Hook Marina. On St. Croix, the sirens will be installed at D.C. Canegata Ballpark at Estate Welcome in Christiansted, the Government Parking Lot in downtown Christiansted, and on Emancipation Drive and near the Legislative Building in Frederiksted. On St. John, the sirens will be installed at Winston Wells Ballpark in Cruz Bay and near Guy Benjamin Elementary School in Coral Bay.

WAPA is allowing the sirens to be installed on WAPA poles at no charge.

The first phase of the installation will be complete by the end of June, Lewis said.

An additional 11 sirens are slated for the second phase. According to VITEMA, no dates have been set for the start of phase two.

Lewis said he is working with local hoteliers to see if the sirens could be placed at some of the seaside resorts.

"This would essentially broaden our coverage area and takes into consideration that thousands of visitors are in our hotels and nearby beaches every day," Lewis said. "Our goal is to eventually blanket our populated coastline areas and we hope the hotel industry joins us in this endeavor."

The sirens will be tied into - and can be triggered by - the V.I. Alert system that sends real-time weather and disaster warnings to subscribers via text messages or emails.

The project is funded by two separate Homeland Security grants, one for $350,000 and another for $300,000.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration also is working with VITEMA to develop tsunami-ready communities through regular exercises and training. The training will use lessons learned from recent events, such as the earthquakes and tsunamis that hit Japan, Haiti, Chile and the American Samoa.

VITEMA recently hired Witt Associates, a public safety and crisis management consulting firm from Washington, D.C., to collaborate with the local agency to establish a tsunami plan that will be included as an addendum to the Territorial Emergency Operations Plan.

Witt Associates will complete a tsunami-specific hazard and risk assessment, write a Tsunami Readiness/Evacuation Plan, identify the training needs in the territory and conduct a tabletop exercise to test the plan.

Earlier this month, a draft of the Tsunami Readiness/Evacuation Plan was submitted. The final plan should be completed by the end of June.

VITEMA also is working with the private sector to bolster the traditional Emergency Alert System, which allows the president of the United States and the Virgin Islands governor to broadcast major emergency alerts on local radio and television stations.

A map of where the first-phase tsunami sirens will be placed and more information about the project can be found at www.VITEMA.gov/tsunami.

- Contact reporter Aldeth Lewin at 774-7882 ext. 311 or email alewin@dailynews.vi.