Public Safety

SDSU Helped Baja California Authorities Gauge Tsunami Response

By Amy Isackson / Border Reporter

Published March 14, 2011 at 1:00 AM PDT

This story was published more than 13 years ago.

Dr. Eric Frost, director of San Diego State University's Immersive Visualization Center, explains how visualizations and maps are created using images and data during a crisis, March 14, 2011.

SDSU Helped Baja California Authorities Gauge Tsunami Response

A quilt of images and information knitted together by San Diego State University geologists helped Baja California authorities prepare for the tsunami generated by the earthquake in Japan.

A quilt of images and information knitted together by San Diego State University geologists helped Baja California authorities prepare for the tsunami generated by the earthquake in Japan.

Erik Frost is the geologist who runs San Diego State University's Viz Lab.

Frost said about two minutes after the quake hit, he and his colleagues rushed to load images of the disaster. The lab's walls are filled with flat-screen TVs. He said they shared these with Baja California authorities.

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"They can actually look at the fact of what the damage is, the size of it and they can convey the sense of importance. And they can see when the wave is coming and they can say, 'here is the danger, there is no danger there'; when it has passed, so they can actually make valid decisions," said Frost.

Emergency authorities in Baja California are not geologists. In that sense, Frost and his team are like curators. They use their expertise to select the most reliable sources to help make sure Baja gets solid information.

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Amy Isackson

Amy Isackson was the border reporter at KPBS from 2004 to 2011. She covered breaking news and feature stories on California-Mexico border issues and immigration, for local and national broadcast. Amy got her start in public radio by pitching a series of stories about rural New Zealand - horse dentistry and sheep sheering - to Radio New Zealand's "Country Life" program. She then worked with Peabody Award-winning radio producers Nikki Silva and Davia Nelson, to help create the Sonic Memorial, a series of stories on the World Trade Center before, during and after 9/11. Amy's work has been recognized with awards from the Associated Press Television-Radio Association of California and Nevada, the California Chicano News Media Association, and the San Diego Press Club. She won the Sol Price Prize for Responsible Journalism in 2009 from the Society of Professional Journalists for her story about high school students smuggling people and drugs across the U.S.-Mexico border. Prior to venturing into the wonderful world of public radio, Amy worked for Yahoo! Inc. for nearly five years as an editorial surfer, associate producer and broadcast communications manager. She majored in Latin American History at Williams College. She grew up in San Diego and made frequent trips south of the border.

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