The tsunami that devastated southern Asia and killed more than 160,000 people has left many people asking,”Could it happen here?”and”What can I do to help?”

Those will be just a couple of the topics addressed by a panel of West Virginia University experts, students and community members at 6 p.m. Friday, Jan. 21, in the Mountainlair Ballroom.

“We have all seen the pictures of the tsunami on TV and have been affected by it, and we wanted to do something to help,”said Peggy Kovac, a WVU health educator and forum organizer.”This forum is about awareness. It’s called’Tsunami: Could It Happen Here?’”

The public is invited to attend and will have the opportunity to ask questions.

Panelists are:

• Isna Keumala, a WVU graduate whose parents were born in Aceh, Indonesia, near the location of the epicenter. To date, 10 of her relatives have been killed or are missing.

• Balaji Srinivasan, a WVU student from India. While not directly affected by the tsunami, his family is helping survivors. Srinivasan is especially concerned about the effects the disaster has had on the eastern coast, where a large part of the population depends on fishing for its livelihood .

• Dick Smosna, a professor of geology at WVU for 26 years and a former environmental geologist for the West Virginia Geological Survey. He will speak about the science of tsunamis and the chance of them striking the United States.

• Greg Elmes, the co-director of the West Virginia State GIS ( geographic information systems) Technical Center and a professor of geography at WVU . He is an expert on the use of geographic information in emergency management, relief and recovery.

• Asra Nomani, a journalist and WVU alumna. She has traveled extensively throughout Asia and plans to show slides of one of the islands as it looked before the tsunami hit.

• Nora Sheets, an art teacher at Saint Francis de Sales Central Catholic School. She has been a long-time advocate in the cause to ban land mines.

Sheets is concerned about the future of South Asia and the dangers that may lie ahead because of disturbed land mine sites. She will discuss this issue and also share artwork created by children in Thailand.

A donation booth will be set up inside the ballroom in conjunction with the forum, Kovac added, and members of the WVU and Morgantown communities are encouraged to contribute at least one dollar to the”Dollars for Disaster”fund-raiser organized by various WVU student groups.

All of the cash and checks collected will go to the American Red Cross International Response Fund. A special announcement regarding fund-raising efforts to date will be made at the conclusion of the forum.