Standing in a waterfront locale that would likely be deluged in the event of a tidal wave, Public Safety Minister Stockwell Day announced a high-tech tsunami warning system Tuesday designed to prevent the kind of tragedy that occurred in southeast Asia in 2004.
Day said the federal government has strengthen its tsunami warning system for the east coast amid heightened concerns of the deadly waves.
"It's very important that our citizens are warned should there ever be a situation like a tsunami on this part of our coast," Day said during the system's unveiling at a Halifax waterfront museum. "We are not immune."
In 1929, a tidal wave that originated on the Grand Banks left 28 people dead and many homeless in 50 Newfoundland and Nova Scotia communities.
Though data shows more than 70 per cent of tsunamis occur in the Pacific, experts said East Coast residents should not be complacent.
"We ... recognize that there is a much lower risk in the Atlantic than in the Pacific," said David McCormack of the Geological Survey of Canada. "But it's not zero."
The system on the Atlantic incorporates existing equipment such as sea level gauges that have been upgraded to improved the capacity to predict storm surges and tsunamis, which are caused by earthquakes or underwater landslides.
Government officials said the improvements cost $250,000, with annual maintenance of the system pegged at $125,000.
The earthquake monitoring networks will be under the watch of several federal departments and the U.S. National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration.
When necessary, the Atlantic Storm Prediction Centre in Dartmouth, N.S., will issue preliminary alerts, warnings or bulletins to provincial and federal emergency management authorities, the media and the public. The Canadian Coast Guard will issue alerts to mariners.
Once a tsunami warning has been issued, Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness Canada will co-ordinate the response effort.
There is talk of an international warning system for the Atlantic and Indian Oceans, much like the system used to predict tsunamis in the Pacific Ocean.
