Juneau Empire report finds state tsunami response system has critical flaws

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A magnitude 7.9 earthquake off the coast of Alaska rattled the state in the early morning hours of January 23rd, setting into motion a series of various emergency warnings and tsunami evacuations. In the end, a destructive tsunami never materialized, but the response revealed some flaws in how Alaskans get warned about possible disasters.

After digging into pages and pages of various agencies’ internal reports, Juneau Empire reporter James Brooks found “technical glitches, deliberate action, and human error.”

James spoke with Alaska Public Media’s Casey Grove today about his reporting.

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James Brooks’s full story was published in the Juneau Empire.

a portrait of a man outside

Casey Grove is host of Alaska News Nightly, a general assignment reporter and an editor at Alaska Public Media. Reach him atcgrove@alaskapublic.org. Read more about Caseyhere

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