COLOMBO RESPONSE TO TSUNAMI, EARTHQUAKE WARNINGS

UNCLAS COLOMBO 000825 SIPDIS AIDAC SIPDIS DEPT FOR S/ES-O DEPT FOR EB/IFD/ODF DEPT FOR OES/FO, OES/IET/ETC/OA/EGC, OES/OA DEPT FOR A/MED, IO AND INR/GGI/HIU USDA FAS WASHDC E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: TPHY AORC EAID AMGT CASC AMGT SUBJECT: COLOMBO RESPONSE TO TSUNAMI, EARTHQUAKE WARNINGS C O R R E C T E D C O P Y -- ADDED TEXT PARA 3 & ADDRESSEES REF: State 54475 ¶1. Per reftel, Embassy Colombo provides the following responses to listed questions. ¶2. Question: Does a duty officer or Mission Disaster Relief Officer (and alternate MDRO) receive tsunami and earthquake warnings on a 24-hour basis from the Ops Center or other service? --Response: To date, the State Department Operations Center has not contacted Embassy Duty Officer with earthquake or tsunami warnings. Our Consular American Citizen Services Office has registered with the USGS earthquake warning alert system, and would receive warnings by e-mail from the USGS within 10-30 minutes of an earthquake with potential tsunami effects. The USGS information, which is sent in English, provides critical information regarding the distance from the earthquake's epicenter to major population areas in Sri Lanka. ¶3. Question: How does the Embassy respond to the information that it receives from the warning notification? --Response: The U.S. Mission in Sri Lanka has a response plan. The Duty Officer would be the initial point of contact for this information from the Operations Center. The Duty Officer would convey the information to the DCM and Mission Disaster Relief Officer (USAID Director). If the magnitude is small with little chance of a tsunami (under 6.0),the Mission Disaster Relief Officer would not take further action; if the magnitude is larger than 6.0 or if a tsunami were likely to result from an earthquake, then the Mission Disaster Relief Officer would report the warning to the U.S. Office of Foreign Disaster Assistance (OFDA) Regional Advisor. The Mission Disaster Relief Officer would also provide an initial assessment to the Embassy Front Office, Regional Security Officer, Management Officer, Defense Attache, and Consular Section. If an earthquake or tsunami of a significant magnitude were to occur close to a major Sri Lankan population center, the Consular Section would immediately contact American citizens in the impacted area to determine if any were in need of assistance. In addition, the Defense Attache/Embassy would convey information contained in the warning notificaton to the Sri Lankan Defense Secretary and would coordinate with PACOM if the earthquake or tsunami were of significant magnitude to warrant consideration of U.S. military assistance. The mission would also convey the warning notification to the GSL's Ministry of Disaster Management. ¶4. Is there additional information that could be supplied with the warning that would improve the ability of the Embassy to respond/react? --Response: Yes. It would be helpful to receive any available estimates on the possible areas to be impacted by the event, with particular emphasis on the locations a tsunami might hit. BLAKE