The difference in lives saved between tsunamis that hit Crescent City, California in 1964 and 2011 was an early detection and warning system. Now it's up to Congress to save the $12 million system from the proposed cuts in Trump's budget.
Rong-Gong Lin II reports on the fate of a tsunami detection system completed in 2008 and credited with giving hours of warning when a tsunami hit the California coast in 2011.
"President Trump’s proposed budget for the next fiscal year would end funding to operate the network, which would eventually shut it down," according to Lin. The article includes a lot more detail about how the system works, with its network of surface buoys, anchored sensors, satellites, and terrestrial warning centers.
As Planetizen documented in an article earlier this week, the House Appropriations Committee has rolled out bills recently that include funding for programs and initiatives targeted for cuts by the Trump Administration's draft budget. Neither Lin's article nor a follow-up article in the North Coast Journal had information about whether the House Appropriations Committee would act to save the system.
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