What are the West Coast and Alaska Tsunami Warning Centers (WC/ATWC) responsibilities?
• The main mission of the WC/ATWC is to help protect life and property from tsunami hazard by providing tsunami information and warning messages to its area-of-responsibility (AOR). • The WC/ATWC AOR is the U.S. West, Alaskan, Atlantic, and Gulf of Mexico coasts as well as the coast of British Columbia in Canada. • Develop new processes and techniques to improve response times, accuracy, and bulletin content to residents in the AOR. • Increase community preparedness and public tsunami education through the TsunamiReady program and outreach. • Staff consists of six full-time personnel who provide on-site coverage during regular work hours and provide on-call service after hours. Two personnel are always within 5 minutes travel to the center. • For more information on the center, see http://wcatwc.arh.noaa.gov/subpage3.htm.
