2006年VOA标准英语-Indian Ocean Tsunami Warning System Not Yet Rea

By Chad Bouchard
Jakarta
02 August 2006

A new regional tsunami¹ warning system in Southeast Asia can already detect dangerous conditions, but the network will not be completed for up to five years. The announcement comes just two weeks after a tsunami ripped into the Indonesia's Java Island, killing² more than 600 people who received little or no warning. 

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Elementary school students take cover under their desks during an earthquake drill in Jakarta, Aug. 2, 2006   
  
U.N. officials say an intricate alert system to watch for tsunami conditions across the Indian Ocean will take three to five years to complete. The comment came Wednesday as more than 150 officials from governments and aid organizations wrapped up a three-day conference on the Indonesian island of Bali.

The conference was called to discuss the Indian Ocean Tsunami Warning and Mitigation System. Thailand, Malaysia and India have already launched their own warning centers. But Indonesia, with more than 50,000 kilometers of coastline to monitor in one of the world's most active seismic³ zones, is lagging behind.

An undersea earthquake on July 17 sent powerful waves into the south coast of Java, leaving 600 people dead and tens of thousands homeless. Critics say the disaster underscores Indonesia's failure to implement⁴ a comprehensive warning system.

Promises to construct the system were made a year and a half ago, after more than 200 thousand people, including at least 130,000 Indonesians, were killed in the Indian Ocean Tsunami of December 2004.

The region currently depends on alerts from the Hawaii-based Pacific Tsunami Warning Center, which uses 23 monitoring stations across the Indian Ocean. Getting information from there to national capitals, and then to the districts in danger, has been the problem.

Charles McCreary, the warning center's director, says the regional network will give critical extra minutes of warning for the people directly at risk.

"In Hawaii it took us about 12 minutes with the global seismic network to analyze⁵ the Java quake," he said. "With the sensors⁶ that will be available in Indonesia, it probably won't take more than maybe about 5 minutes to analyze the quake."

McCreary says getting alerts quickly to those at risk requires a massive communication network, with public education and evacuation plans in place.

Weather agencies from each of the member countries are already connected. A regional command center is expected to begin operations in 2007, though a host country has not yet been named. The group plans to install 25 more monitoring buoys⁷ by the end of 2008.

McCreary says the biggest challenge the group faces is finding a way to ensure maintenance of the system.

"With having funds available now to buy equipment or to do capacity building or to do training, those things have to be sustainable," he continued. "So if you put in a bunch of things in now and then the funding goes away, and you can't maintain those things, the system will fail."

This week, the Indonesian government pledged to install 500 tsunami alarms on existing cell phone towers along coastal⁸ areas by the end of 2006, at a cost of about $143 million. Each alarm would have a range of about five kilometers. Plans for a mandatory⁹ alert across TV and radio stations are also underway. The country has vowed¹⁰ to finish its system by mid-2008.

1 tsunami   

n.海啸

参考例句：

• Powerful quake sparks tsunami warning in Japan.大地震触发了日本的海啸预警。
• Coastlines all around the Indian Ocean inundated by a huge tsunami.大海啸把印度洋沿岸地区都淹没了。

2 killing   

n.巨额利润；突然赚大钱，发大财

参考例句：

• Investors are set to make a killing from the sell-off.投资者准备清仓以便大赚一笔。
• Last week my brother made a killing on Wall Street.上个周我兄弟在华尔街赚了一大笔。

3 seismic   

a.地震的，地震强度的

参考例句：

• Earthquakes produce two types of seismic waves.地震产生两种地震波。
• The latest seismic activity was also felt in northern Kenya.肯尼亚北部也感觉到了最近的地震活动。

4 implement   

n.(pl.)工具，器具；vt.实行，实施，执行

参考例句：

• Don't undertake a project unless you can implement it.不要承担一项计划，除非你能完成这项计划。
• The best implement for digging a garden is a spade.在花园里挖土的最好工具是铁锹。

5 analyze   

vt.分析，解析 (=analyse)

参考例句：

• We should analyze the cause and effect of this event.我们应该分析这场事变的因果。
• The teacher tried to analyze the cause of our failure.老师设法分析我们失败的原因。

6 sensors   

n.传感器，灵敏元件( sensor的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• There were more than 2000 sensors here. 这里装有两千多个灵敏元件。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Significant changes have been noted where sensors were exposed to trichloride. 当传感器暴露在三氯化物中时，有很大变化。 来自辞典例句

7 buoys   

n.浮标( buoy的名词复数 )；航标；救生圈；救生衣v.使浮起( buoy的第三人称单数 )；支持；为…设浮标；振奋…的精神

参考例句：

• The channel is marked by buoys. 航道有浮标表示。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》
• Often they mark the path with buoys. 他们常常用浮标作为航道的标志。 来自辞典例句

8 coastal   

adj.海岸的，沿海的，沿岸的

参考例句：

• The ocean waves are slowly eating away the coastal rocks.大海的波浪慢慢地侵蚀着岸边的岩石。
• This country will fortify the coastal areas.该国将加强沿海地区的防御。

9 mandatory   

adj.命令的；强制的；义务的；n.受托者

参考例句：

• It's mandatory to pay taxes.缴税是义务性的。
• There is no mandatory paid annual leave in the U.S.美国没有强制带薪年假。

10 vowed   

起誓，发誓（vow的过去式与过去分词形式）

参考例句：

• He vowed quite solemnly that he would carry out his promise. 他非常庄严地发誓要实现他的诺言。
• I vowed to do more of the cooking myself. 我发誓自己要多动手做饭。