CHARLESTON, S.C. - After South Carolina's busiest hurricane season in recent memory and after a tsunami claimed tens of thousands of lives halfway around the world, it would seem U.S. Sen. Jim DeMint has plenty to do in his new job.

The freshman Republican is the first chairman of a new Senate subcommittee on disaster prediction and prevention.

"We can't avoid a hurricane. But how you prepare for it and the type of warning systems that are available make a big difference in the loss of human life and the loss of economic assets," DeMint said after touring the weather research vessel Nancy Foster on Thursday.

Once the new Commerce subcommittee is organized, DeMint plans public hearings to review how well the nation can predict and is prepared for natural disasters.

DeMint noted the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration is working to become better at predicting the path of hurricanes.

"The more precise we can be and the more confidence we have, the less the areas we have to evacuate," he said. "Closing down like we did last year - for a relatively moderate hit - most of the South Carolina coastline caused multiple millions of dollars in losses for hotels, restaurants and merchants."

The subcommittee also will consider evacuation plans and how well structures can withstand storms.

"That's something we need to constantly improve. I don't think there has ever been a focus on this," he said.

The full committee held hearings after last year's tsunami and found that while the United States has six tsunami warning buoys, only three were working.

"All of us were kind of astounded there was so low reliability," DeMint said. "It doesn't happen very often and it's easy to get complacent, but our West Coast is susceptible to tsunamis."

On the East Coast, underwater mud slides could have similar impacts, he said.

"So as NOAA maps the (ocean) bottom and the shifts in the bottom we may actually be able to determine something could happen and be better prepared," he said.

"To be able to save hundreds and maybe thousands of lives sometime in the future is worth a lot of effort," he said. "To be able to save the economic interests of businesses is important as well."

The death toll from December's tsunami in southern Asia was estimated at as high as 183,000 people with an estimated 130,000 missing.

The Nancy Foster last month worked in Winyah Bay near Georgetown studying the rate at which sediment fills the shipping channel.

Next month, the vessel will be off the South Carolina coast mapping areas where sand can be mined for beach renourishment projects along the Grand Strand and at Folly Beach.