A team of visiting experts from SOPAC, or the Pacific Islands Applied Geoscience Commission, in Fiji arrived to assess Yap’s capacity to receive, communicate and effectively respond to Tsunami warnings.
The assessment workshop is part of a disaster risk reduction project in eight Pacific countries of which FSM is a part.
The specific focus in FSM is to strengthen disaster management arrangements by developing infrastructure for a national emergency operation center, state disaster operation centers, and strengthening multi-hazard early warning systems with a particular focus on supplying communication equipment and institutional support for sustainability of networks.
Participants in the workshop were from those departments and agencies of the state government that have already established communication network in the neighboring islands of Yap.
The team also demonstrated the use or operation of an equipment box called “Chatty Betel” which will be installed at various government offices in Yap an in the neighboring islands to warn people of tsunamis and other types of natural disaster.
The Chatty Betel box was designed especially for remote areas where there is not electricity.
It is a very simple piece of equipment that even a kid can easily punch the operational keys to send off an acknowledgement that you have received the message when the warning sound sets on.
