Local and state officials, mindful of the death and destruction from last month’s catastrophic tsunami in South Asia, are looking at ways to boost spotty or antiquated warning systems for various kinds of natural or man-made disasters.

New phone message systems, improved satellite relays, more advanced public outreach and even a return of those old air raid sirens are being considered.

“Our first responders are probably the most prepared in the country. But we need better early warning systems for the average person, to give people a chance to save their own lives,” said L.A. City Councilwoman Janice Hahn, who introduced a motion last week to boost local disaster preparedness systems.

Hahn and other officials in the city say these systems will not break the budgets of any local governments. Costs can run anywhere from a few hundred thousand dollars for an underwater microphone network to pick up signals of an approaching tsunami, up to about $7 million for a new siren network or upgrades to the emergency broadcast system.

“Substantial improvements can be achieved in our national warning capability in only 24 months for less than $10 million,” Kenneth Allen, executive director of the Partnership for Public Warning, said in a letter to President Bush last week.

Locally, Hahn said she is not overly concerned about funding. “First tell me what needs to be done, then give me a price tag and then I’ll figure out how to go after the funding,” she said.

Her immediate focus is on taking steps to prevent loss of life from a locally-generated tsunami, which could slam into the ports of L.A. and Long Beach within minutes of a moderately large offshore earthquake. While such events are considered rare in Southern California, a similarly generated series of waves hit Papua-New Guinea following a 7.0 underwater quake in 1998, killing about 2,100 people.

Hahn wants to reinstall a network of updated warning sirens, similar to the air-raid sirens that were part of the nation’s civil defense network of the 1950s and 1960s, but which later fell into disuse.

“If one of these offshore quakes hits and generates a tsunami, there will only be five or 10 minutes to get to higher ground. For the men and women working on the docks, hearing that siren would tell them to get out of there, fast,” Hahn said. “For others on the beach, it would give them a chance to get out.”

Other communities in Northern California, including San Francisco and Contra Costa County, have such siren networks, which cost about $50,000 per siren. The Contra Costa County sirens are used to warn residents to stay inside in the event of a hazardous release from nearby refineries.

Other warnings

Sirens are only part of an array of tools that local and state emergency preparedness planners want to use to warn the public of impending disaster, whether it’s a toxic cloud from a train derailment, a radioactive bomb attack, a wildfire or a tsunami.

The primary means of notification is the Emergency Broadcast System, which most radio and television stations participate in as a public service.

The major weakness is that many people won’t be tuned in to radio or television to hear crucial warnings. Emergency officials can go door-to-door to evacuate people who did not receive word, but that’s a time-consuming process appropriate only for limited areas.

As one remedy, local emergency planners are considering expanding the fledgling “reverse 911 system” of phone messages automatically dialed out to all homes and businesses within a given area, and installing remote-controlled loudspeakers in key locations to broadcast warning messages.

A small-scale reverse 911 system has been in use for nearly a decade around the Port of Los Angeles, initially funded by oil companies with terminals and refineries in the area. Two years ago, Hahn asked port officials to look into expanding that network; they are now conducting tests and the system could be fully operational within months.

Meanwhile, statewide emergency planners are using $7 million in homeland security funding to set up more direct satellite links between local emergency managers and media outlets. Currently, the media first receives warnings and instructions from officials before deciding whether to broadcast them.

“Within a year, an emergency manager coordinating the response to a disaster will be able to push a single button and instantaneously send a digital message that would be broadcast on every radio and television station, cable system and even weather radios within the affected area,” said Ben Green, assistant chief of telecommunications with the state Office of Emergency Services.

“This is the vital missing piece in our public warning system,” said Richard Rudman, a retired radio engineering manager who is vice chair of the Federal Communications Commission’s emergency communications committee. “It puts the information directly from civil warning sources right into the hands of the people.”

A mechanism for government pre-emption of airwaves hasn’t been worked out.

Advance education

While new warning systems could help save lives, officials said their effectiveness will be limited without public education.

“Most communities haven’t spent a lot of time making sure all their residents know what types of disasters they can face and how to respond to them,” said Allen. “I’m not just talking about telling people to evacuate in case of a tsunami or a wildfire. They need to know where to go and what to do when they get there.”

He supports a national public-warning awareness day, where local, state and national emergency preparedness officials get the word out. “This isn’t going to cost a gazillion dollars. But it will save a lot of lives,” he said.

Officials also point out the need for emergency personnel from different agencies to coordinate on sending out a clear, concise message to the public. While there is a protocol for designating a lead agency once a disaster hits, there’s not enough coordination beforehand, emergency preparedness officials admit.

Even if the correct message does get out, there’s no guarantee that the instructions will be followed. In a major disaster, Allen said about 20 percent of the people who hear warnings don’t heed them. Some hunker down and try to ride it out rather than flee, while others grab a video camera and try to get closer.

Officials are working to find the best way to make early warning systems as effective as possible.

“There are many, many warning systems. What we lack is a common thread that connects all the warning systems,” Rudman said.

The Common Alerting Protocol could serve as that thread. It’s a reception standard that would give any electronic device, such as a TV or radio, the ability to receive warnings from multiple sources in an emergency. But it’s been slow to catch on, primarily because of liability concerns from manufacturers of warning products.