The director of the National Weather Service told a community forum in Seattle today he’s committed to securing a coastal weather radar system for Washington state.

“We want you to believe that we care,” Jack Hayes told the audience at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Western Regional Center.

“I’m not going to give up to get the resources we need to help this community and others across the country be better protected.”

The forum, sponsored by U.S. Sen. Maria Cantwell, included the release of an independent study conducted by the Collaborative Adaptive Sensing of the Atmosphere (CASA) center at the University of Massachusetts. The study found that Washington’s lack of coastal radar reduces the ability of forecasters to see storms coming. Adding radar at lower elevations could improve public safety and reduce storm-related damages by enabling forecasters to better monitor storms and warn residents in advance, the study concluded.

Washington’s only weather radar is on Camano Island. The station has limited ability to identify storms coming in off the Pacific Ocean, where most of the region’s severe weather develops, because its beams are blocked by the Olympic Mountains.

Proponents say coastal weather radar in Washington would save immeasurable costs in damages and lives. The National Weather Service estimates that a coastal weather radar system for Washington would cost about $10 million. The December 2007 storms that hit the region caused massive flooding, killed at least eight people and were responsible for an estimated $1 billion in damages.

The CASA study, Cantwell said, underscored how vulnerable Washington communities are because of gaps in radar coverage. “Without that coverage, our forecasters can’t see what’s coming,” she said.

Cantwell, who chairs the Senate subcommittee overseeing the National Weather Service and NOAA, has secured a $2 million down-payment for the system. President Obama has included $7 million in his 2010 budget to provide coastal weather radar for Washington, and Hayes said radar would likely be implemented in the fall of 2012 if Congress approves the appropriation.

“I would like to stand up and promise you something sooner, because I am aware of the threat you face,” he said. “Making this acquisition happen as quickly as we can is going to be a high priority with me.”

Jack Hayes, director of the National Weather Service, said he supports a coastal weather radar system for Washington.

Hayes’ comments were a tacit acknowledgment of criticism directed toward the National Weather Service for not yet installing coastal weather radar in Washington, which experiences hurricane-force winds and some of the most severe storms in the country.

But the mood at the forum was decidedly collaborative. Meteorologist and University of Washington professor Cliff Mass, a longtime advocate for coastal radar, said the forum represents “an important transition” in the bid for coastal radar in Washington.

“We’re now moving from a dream to a real possibility,” he said.

The forum’s panel of speakers included officials from Washington communities hit hard by the 2007 storms and representatives from the forestry, shipping and fishery industries.

Jim Neva, manager of the Port of Ilwaco, Wash., said he depends on forecasts to tell him if the weather will be dry enough to load shipping containers, whose cargo can become moldy if loaded during a rainfall. “I’m sitting there with a $900-an-hour shift of longshoremen,” Neva said. “I need to order labor for the next day by 2 p.m.”

Ray Toste, president and general manager of the Washington Dungeness Crab Fisherman’s Association, said the 2007 storms displaced about 20,000 crab pots. “The crab industry is still reeling,” he said.

“The storms … created an avoidable disaster for everybody.”