Caribbean states to meet on tsunami warning system

Monday,  January 9, 2006

PARIS, France (AFP): Delegates from 30 Caribbean states are to meet on the island of Barbados this week to plan the setting-up of a tsunami early warning system, UNESCO said in a statement on Friday.

Participants in the three-day meeting, to open on Tuesday, will hammer out an action plan for assessing risks, collecting and sharing data, and managing emergency situations, the UN educational, scientific and cultural body said.

The Caribbean system will be linked up to a global tsunami alert system, launched at UNESCO's initiative following the devastation of the December 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami, which claimed 220,000 lives.

A regional warning system is already in place in Pacific Ocean, with others in the pipeline for the Indian Ocean, the Mediterranean and the North Atlantic.

UNESCO described the creation of a warning system for the Caribbean as a "landmark" for the region's 35 million inhabitants.

Tsunami risk factors in the Caribbean include tectonic shifts in North America and landslides on the ocean floor near Puerto Rico, according to UNESCO.

The last major Caribbean tsunami, sparked by an earthquake in the Dominican Republic in 1946, claimed 1,800 lives.

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