If an earthquake or volcanic eruption produced a tsunami that threatened the Homer area, would residents be alerted in time to evacuate?

That question was supposed to have been answered with the January 2008 installation of an $800,000 tsunami warning system -- a set of five tower-mounted sirens located around Homer and a control panel at the Homer Police dispatch office.

The problem, according to City Manager Walt Wrede, is that the system has never worked the way it was intended.

Plagued by "persistent problems," including a faulty siren on the Homer Spit and a malfunctioning control panel at the police station, the tsunami warning system presently could not be activated locally in the event of an emergency, said Wrede in a Feb. 9 report to the Homer City Council.

"We have been badgering the borough about this for months," said Wrede in the report. "The recent activity at Mount Redoubt has added urgency to our requests."

Built by Federal Signal Corporation, the tsunami warning system was installed in cooperation with the Alaska Division of Homeland Security and Emergency Management and the Federal Emergency Management Agency. The Kenai Peninsula Borough Office of Emergency Management oversees the system, which includes similar equipment in Seward, Seldovia, Nanwalek and Port Graham.

According to Scott Walden, coordinator for the borough's Office of Emergency Management, the sirens -- for the most part -- are functioning normally.

"There's a misunderstanding," he said. "The sirens are fine and they will activate as they're intended. The part that the city is asking about is local activation that connectivity is not complete yet."

Wrede agreed that, in the event of a major emergency like the possible eruption of Mount Redoubt, state or borough officials would be able to activate the system.

"Sometimes there are borough emergencies and sometimes there are local emergencies," he said. "If we had a local emergency, like a fire out on the Spit, the police couldn't send out a warning."

Local connectivity was never a required feature, said Walden, but the borough has been working to fix it. The problem, he said, has to do with paperwork between Federal Signal and the Alaska Department of Labor. As a result of miscommunication, a stop work order issued by the state last year prevented Federal Signal from finishing its work in Homer. That problem has been fixed, he added. Federal Signal workers are due in Homer in the next few weeks.

"It's as frustrating to us as it is to Homer," said Walden. "For something as important as this to be held up by paperwork is very frustrating to all of us."

As for the faulty siren on the Homer Spit, the borough sent Kyle Kornelis, project manager for the capital projects division, to Homer last week to check it out.

The telephone line from the police dispatch office out to the Spit, said Kornelis, has "spotty connectivity." While the siren would still work if the borough or the state activated the tsunami warning system, he said, a new DSL line is required to complete local connectivity.

"Where we're at right now is we're trying to tweak it so it's working perfectly. There's still some work to do," said Kornelis. "We're expected to be down there early next week to run some wires and try to enhance reliability."

In the meantime, Homer Harbormaster Bryan Hawkins isn't sure if the warning siren outside his office, which is supposed to be able to be activated locally, works or not.

"Apparently they do a silent test on it every month," said Hawkins. "The last time it was tested audibly was last June. From that point on, it's been not functional as far as I'm concerned."

Hawkins said he is used to miscommunication between government agencies, but worries about what might happen if a disaster struck the Homer Spit.

"Red tape should not apply to a tsunami system," he said.

Aaron Selbig can be reached at aaronselbig.@homernews.com.