Fri, Sep 5, 2008 (2:07 a.m.)

If the technology exists to warn isolated communities about potential natural disasters, every effort should be made to put those systems in place. Examples are the early-warning alarm systems that extend along Tornado Alley from Texas to the Dakotas. This technology cannot necessarily prevent extensive property damage but can definitely save lives.

An early-warning system would have been helpful to the more than 400 tourists and members of the Havasupai Tribe in Arizona who were airlifted to safety following the Aug. 16 breach of a dam near the Grand Canyon that caused flooding of a campground on the isolated tribal reservation.

Because the flooding came as a surprise, a Boy Scout troop was stranded and other campers were forced to climb trees to avoid getting swept up by the surge of water. It was pure luck that no one was killed or seriously hurt.

As The New York Times reported Wednesday, the U.S. Geological Survey and Arizona authorities are considering an early-warning system to alert Havasupai members who live at the bottom of the canyon, eight miles from the nearest paved road. A similar idea was considered in 1995 but was rejected due to lack of money.

But with the possibility that hundreds of lives could be at stake from future flooding of the popular tourist destination, the estimated $100,000 it would cost to erect an early-warning system would be money well spent. Over the past 100 years the reservation has experienced at least 16 major floods.

The system under discussion would involve construction by the USGS of gauges that would measure water flow upstream from the reservation and transmit that information via satellite to the National Weather Service. The weather service would then send warnings to the tribe, possibly by telephone.

The tribe is not about to move and tourists will continue to flock to the canyon. That concentration of human activity warrants the protection an early-warning system could provide.