The next tsunami alert for Hawai'i may include a more detailed prediction that gives a better idea of what areas to evacuate and whether the wave will be destructive.

Jeff LeDouce, director of the National Weather Service in the Pacific Region, said the capability will be available in the future as a complex computer model is constructed and new ocean sensing equipment is installed.

The U.S. has been upgrading tsunami monitoring systems after the devastation and deaths suffered in South Asia after a deep-ocean earthquake in December 2004.

Locally, the staffing at 'Ewa Beach's Pacific Tsunami Warning Center has been increased and its responsibilities expanded, LeDouce said. On Wednesday the warning center, the first of its kind in the world, went to 24-hour staffing, seven days a week.

"We are doing a number of things that are reactionary," said LeDouce, speaking yesterday to the Risk and Insurance Management Society's annual meeting, which this year met at the Hawai'i Convention Center.

"But we are also doing a lot of things that are proactive."

That includes working on faster warnings for tsunamis generated from local earthquakes. Currently the warnings take two to five minutes after an earthquake occurs. LeDouce said a big priority is to get that under 90 seconds by installing more seismic sensors in the state.

The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center also has been working on alerts for other parts of the world as part of a $37.5 million U.S. global monitoring system.

The center, which had been responsible for monitoring only the Pacific Ocean, began watching for activity in the Indian Ocean last summer.

It also has e-mail systems in place to alert people of potential Indian Ocean tsunamis. To make sure people are seeing the bulletins, there is a list of English-speaking offices they can telephone in the region that are operated around the clock, LeDouce said.

The warning center also is responsible for alerts in the Caribbean and Puerto Rico, while another center in Palmer, Alaska, that has watched over the West Coast and Alaska, is now also keeping an eye out for Atlantic tsunamis, LeDouce said.

A computer model projecting potential impacts on Hawai'i from a tsunami caused by a deep-ocean earthquake is among 74 models being developed by the Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory in Seattle.

These will use data generated by 37 reporting stations around the Pacific comprised of a sensor anchored to the ocean bottom that transmits data to a buoy which is in contact with a warning center via a satellite.

So far 11 of the stations have been installed, LeDouce said. Five of the seven scheduled for the Atlantic and Caribbean are in place.

He said staffing at the warning center on O'ahu went to 24 hours daily from the 16 it had been since January. Before that, the facility had been open between 8 a.m. and 4:30 p.m. and had people on call for the rest of the day, LeDouce said.

Reach Greg Wiles at gwiles@honoluluadvertiser.com.