Geoscience Reference
In-Depth Information
HUMAN RESOURCES
Each TWC is staffed by a center director, a tsunami warning science oficer (who serves as
the deputy director), an information technology oficer, nine science duty staff (geophysicists
and physical oceanographers), a senior electronics technician, an electronics technician, and
an administrative assistant (Charles McCreery, presentation to the committee, 2008). The nine
science duty staff members perform watchstanding duties in addition to their research and
development duties (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, 2008b, c). Because of
the watchstander's critical role in maintaining situational awareness and issuing correct notii-
cation and warning products, the committee reviewed this position's shift schedules, training,
support, and responsibilities as part of its assessment of the TWC' long-term sustainability.
When the TWCs are fully staffed, the nine watchstanders serve on rotating two-person,
eight-hour shifts that provide 24/7 coverage. Both TWCs have identical watch schedules
(0800-1600, 1600-2400, 2400-0800 local time), although the two watch centers are in different
time zones. Watches can be rotated to cover busy periods, vacations, and other TWC needs.
Two watchstanders are always present at the WC/ATWC. In contrast, the PTWC has only one
on-duty watchstander in the watch station at all times, while the second watchstander is on
a 90-second response standby, allowing him/her to sleep or to be outside the watch station.
Each watchstander is responsible for checking all workstations every four hours to ensure
functionality. Unless they need to respond to an event, watchstanders spend approximately six
hours on software development and two for operational activities (Paul Whitmore, West Coast
and Alaska Tsunami Warning Center, personal communication). When an alarm is sounded, the
watchstanders leave their other duties to respond. Because they are most often attending to
other duties, there is an indeterminate period of time required for watchstanders to acclimate
themselves to an alarm.
The WC/ATWC rotates watches every two weeks, which can result in sleep disorders (Sack
et al., 2007) and work/life balance issues, but provides equitable sharing of night shift watch-
standing duties.
Resulting sleep disorders, issues with work/life balance, as well as several
month-long shortages of two full-time watchstanders at the WC/ATWC in 2008 suggest that
staff fatigue may be an issue.
TWC staff have varying levels of engagement with the external research community.
The PTWC's proximity to Honolulu (23 miles away) is conducive to interactions with the civil
defense and academic communities at the University of Hawaii at Manoa, while WC/ATWC's
distance from Anchorage (43 miles away) and its location in a small town of 7,000 residents
(Palmer, Alaska) does not lend itself as easily to such interactions.
Conclusion:
Because of the importance of technical and scientiic know-how within the
TWC program, opportunities for interactions between TWC staff and the external scientiic
and professional communities are important, need to be encouraged and institutionalized
within the tsunami program, and require adequate resources.
Such interactions might include attendance at professional conferences; participation
in seminars, workshops, or other structured learning opportunities; scientiic and personnel
