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Maui Center's Daily Reporting Supports Emergency Managers
KIHEI (May 24) - On May 3rd of this year, a 7.9 magnitude earthquake jolted the Kingdom of Tonga resulting in tsunami alerts throughout the Pacific Islands. Soon after, Indonesia's Mt. Merapi grabbed international headlines when it began a series of violent volcanic eruptions. In mid-May, Typhoon Chanchu impacted the Philippines, Vietnam, and China-claiming dozens of lives and forcing a staggering one million people to evacuate. And this week, a very active Atlantic hurricane season has been predicted to unfold on the heels of a year that shattered records across the board.
For a decade, the Pacific Disaster Center (PDC), headquartered in Maui, Hawaii, has kept local, national, regional and international emergency managers abreast of complex situations like these through daily reporting and dissemination throughout the region.
"As an'all-hazards' Center, we are engaged in a wide variety of activities that foster disaster-resilient communities through the application of science, information, and technology," said PDC Executive Director Allen Clark. "The daily reports we provide emergency managers may not receive a great deal of public visibility, but the impact they have made in the emergency management community is extremely significant."
PDC's Senior Weather Analyst Glenn James spearheads the creation of the PDC's "Hazard Briefs" by generating and disseminating tailored daily tropical cyclone reports, hazard-related overviews, and weather analysis.
"Our goal is to present some of the most important disaster-related news in a useable format for extremely busy emergency managers," says James. "Nations such as Fiji, Samoa, the Federated States of Micronesia, and the Philippines, as well as our home state of Hawai'i have informed us that this information is making a difference."
During a series of "back-to-back" typhoon events that struck the Philippines in 2004, Philippine emergency officials used this reporting and PDC's web site as a basis for briefing President Arroyo.
"As hurricane seasons begin again in the East and Central Pacific, as well as in the Atlantic, it becomes even more important to tightly synthesize information for those who may eventually be responding," concludes James.
PDC's mission is to provide applied information research and analysis support for the development of effective policies, institutions, programs and information products for the disaster management and humanitarian assistance communities of the Asia Pacific region and beyond. The East-West Center has been the managing partner of PDC since 2001.
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For more information, contact PDC Director Allen Clark or Senior Weather Analyst Glenn James at (808) 891-0525.
For daily news on the Pacific Islands, see www.pireport.org. For links to all East-West Center media programs, fellowships and services, see www.eastwestcenter.org/journalists