We recently caught up with Congresswoman Colleen Hanabusa about outages in the federal government’s network of tsunami-forecasting buoys (read the full story about the buoys that aren’t working).

Hanabusa says the nonworking buoys serve as a reminder of the valuable role that the military plays in the islands. 

“We’re looking at different types of military research that can almost duplicate that kind of information gathering,” Hanabusa said.

Check out this graphic — a screen shot of NOAA’s National Buoy Data Center — showing outages in the federal government’s network of specialized buoys. Most of the red dots indicate buoys that are out of order. 

Check out the NOAA National Buoy Data Center’s interactive map to click on individual buoys and learn more about deep-ocean forecasting.