MAKING
OUR U.S. COASTAL COMMUNITIES "TSUNAMIREADY"
January
21, 2005 — The world’s interest in tsunami
detection and warning systems was heightened since the tsunami struck
South Asia on Dec.
26, 2004, yet very little attention has been focused on what coastal
communities in tsunami
prone areas can do to prepare and protect themselves from future tsunamis.
It is critical that individuals in high-risk areas are educated about
and prepared for tsunamis before they strike because ultimately it is
up to each individual to take appropriate actions to protect him or herself
(i.e., moving inland
and to higher ground). All the warnings and information in the world
will not do much if the public does not get, know how to use and/or act
upon it. The goal of the NOAA
TsunamiReady Program is to do just that — not to alarm, but
to educate and remind the public about tsunami safety precautions.
The NOAA
TsunamiReady program has fulfilled the two key requirements of any
useful readiness/preparedness effort: awareness and mitigation. It has
promoted tsunami awareness by educating key decision makers, emergency
managers and the public about the nature (physical processes) and threat
(frequency of occurrence, impact) of tsunamis. Tsunami mitigation involves
taking steps before a tsunami strikes to lessen the impact (loss of life
and property) of that event when it does occur. As with earthquakes, there
is no question tsunamis will occur — it's just a matter of when,
where and how bad it will be. As a result, the TsunamiReady
program has encouraged the drafting and implementation of a well-designed
tsunami emergency response plan for each of its communities.
To
date, there are 15
TsunamiReady communities in Hawaii, Alaska, Washington, Oregon and
California. Since the NOAA TsunamiReady
Program was initiated in 2001, local authorities in these states have
drawn up tsunami emergency plans, installed sirens and other warning systems
to alert people of an approaching tsunami, installed tsunami evacuation
route signs and tsunami information signs along the coast and at many
state parks, implemented innovative tsunami hazard educational pilot programs
and practiced tsunami evacuation drills.
“The
success of the NOAA TsunamiReady
Program should serve as a model for local level tsunami mitigation
and awareness in other parts of the nation and the world,” said
Stephan Kuhl, warning coordination meteorologist for NOAA National Weather
Service headquarters in Washington, D.C. “Although it is almost
impossible to accurately predict when and where earthquakes will occur,
it is possible to determine if a tsunami is generated and help people
learn how best to protect themselves and their families from harm.”
Unique
Challenges Posed by Tsunamis
Tsunamis
are quite rare compared to other hazardous natural events, but they can
be just as deadly and destructive. As a result, tsunami hazard planning
along the U.S. and Canadian west coasts, Alaska and within the Pacific
Region is inconsistent and, in many cases, insufficient. Even in locations
with a history of deadly tsunamis, an adequate level of awareness and
preparedness is difficult to achieve and sustain over time. Tsunamis also
pose several other unique and difficult challenges:
- Many of
the tsunami at-risk areas have low population densities, making it difficult
to compete with more populated areas for scarce mitigation resources.
- Locally
generated tsunamis are typically accompanied by a significant earthquake.
Communities in the epicentral region of a major tsunami-generating earthquake
must deal with significant earthquake-related impacts, in addition to
tsunami flooding and damage — making both dissemination of warning
information and coordinated official evacuation much more challenging.
- Local
tsunami mitigation must rely strongly on education since it is critical
that all people in high-risk coastal communities immediately recognize
that an earthquake itself should serve as a local tsunami warning to
move inland and to higher ground. The NOAA tsunami warning centers,
on the other hand, would provide advanced warning for distant tsunamis
originating from across the ocean. The diverse population of coastal
regions further complicates this problem. Information about the tsunami
risk and appropriate response needs to be communicated to residents,
workers (seasonal and year-round), regional visitors and transient populations,
all of whom have different exposures to the tsunami hazard.
- Despite
numerous research efforts, tsunamis and their effects remain largely
uncertain, unpredictable and vary from location to location (depending
on the local geography and man-made infrastructure). Tsunamis can occur
at any time of the day, are not seasonal and do not occur regularly
or frequently.
The TsunamiReady
program was created to help meet the needs of communities that are
at risk of tsunamis.
NOAA’s
National Tsunami Efforts
On
a national level, NOAA Research
(i.e., the NOAA Pacific Marine Environmental
Laboratory) and the NOAA National
Weather Service (which runs the U.S. Tsunami Program, including
the operation of warning centers in Hawaii and Alaska, and oversees the
National Tsunami Hazard
Mitigation Program) have designed, developed and implemented a Pacific
Ocean-based tsunami monitoring and warning system that can pinpoint where
and when a tsunami might strike the coast from distant sources. These
warnings are relayed to coastal communities throughout Washington,
Oregon, California, Alaska and Hawaii. But what do coastal communities
do once they receive a tsunami warning from NOAA or experience an earthquake
(or other tsunami trigger) in a high risk coastal area. This is where
the NOAA TsunamiReady Program comes in.
The NOAA TsunamiReady Program Helps at the Local Level
TsunamiReady is a voluntary preparedness program that promotes tsunami
hazard readiness as an active collaboration among federal, state and local
emergency management agencies, the public and the NOAA National Weather
Service tsunami warning system. This collaboration supports better and
more consistent tsunami awareness and mitigation efforts among communities
at risk. The main goal is to improve public safety during tsunami emergencies
so that when a tsunami warning is issued, the public gets the warning,
knows what to do about it and takes action. To meet this goal, the following
objectives
must be met:
- Create
minimum standard guidelines for a community to follow for adequate tsunami
readiness
- Encourage
consistency in educational materials and response among communities
and states
- Recognize
communities that have adopted TsunamiReady guidelines
- Increase
public awareness and understanding of the tsunami hazard
- Improve
community pre-planning for tsunami disasters
TsunamiReady
Community Guidelines
TsunamiReady establishes minimum guidelines
for a community to be awarded the TsunamiReady recognition. TsunamiReady
communities adopt requirements
in the areas of communications, warning reception and dissemination, public
outreach, awareness and administrative planning. Specific TsunamiReady
guidelines are listed below:
- Establish
a 24-hour warning point and emergency operations center
- Have
more than one way to receive tsunami and severe weather warnings and
forecasts and to alert the public (e.g., Emergency Management Weather
Information Network receiver, NOAA Weather Radio and/or NOAA Weather
Wire drop)
- Create
a system that monitors weather conditions locally
- Promote
the importance of public readiness through community seminars
- Develop
a formal hazardous weather plan, which includes training severe weather
spotters and holding emergency exercises.
Benefits
of Your Community Becoming Storm and TsunamiReady
The TsunamiReady program encourages communities to take a proactive approach
to improving local tsunami awareness and mitigation activities. The program
is a “win” situation for everyone involved: community leaders,
the NOAA Weather Service, emergency managers and the general public.
How
can you become a TsunamiReady Community?
To become TsunamiReady,
communities in California, Oregon, Washington, British Columbia and Alaska
should contact the West Coast and
Alaska Tsunami Warning Center in Palmer, Alaska. Communities in Hawaii
should contact the Pacific
Tsunami Warning Center in Ewa Beach, Hawai. You can also contact your
local NOAA National Weather
Service Forecast Office.
The
threat of a tsunami striking the United States (and other countries) is
real and should be taken seriously — it has happened in the past
and will happen again. In fact, over the past 200 years, a total of 24
tsunamis have caused damage to the United States and its territories.
Although a lot has already been done to prepare coastal communities for
tsunamis, there is still much more to do. The TsunamiReady program started
in the Pacific because this area has the highest number of subduction
zones (known as the “ring
of fire”), which produce the most powerful earthquakes and tsunamis.
However, tsunamis also have been generated in other bodies of water, including
the Caribbean and Mediterranean seas and the Indian and Atlantic Oceans.
Knowing this, NOAA is already planning to expand
its TsunamiReady Program (as well as its Tsunami monitoring and warning
systems) to many of these areas so it can continue to educate, inform
and advise coastal communities about the threat of tsunamis.
"To
date, NOAA has successfully established 15 TsunamiReady
communities but hopes to establish hundreds or even thousands more
all along our coasts in the near future," said retired Air Force
Brig. General David L. Johnson,
director of the NOAA National Weather Service. "No
community is tsunami proof, but TsunamiReady communities are better prepared
to save lives because of their advanced planning, educational and awareness
efforts."
Relevant
Web Sites
U.S.
ANNOUNCES PLAN FOR AN IMPROVED TSUNAMI DETECTION AND WARNING SYSTEM
NOAA
SCIENTISTS ABLE TO MEASURE TSUNAMI HEIGHT FROM SPACE
NOAA
AND THE INDIAN OCEAN TSUNAMI
NOAA
REACTS QUICKLY TO INDONESIAN TSUNAMI
NOAA
TSUNAMI WARNING SYSTEM RECEIVES HIGH MARKS
Frequently Asked Questions
about TsunamiReady (West Coast and Alaska Tsunami Warning Center site)
Frequently
Asked Questions about TsunamiReady (Pacific Tsunami Warning Center site)
TsunamiReady
Administration
TsunamiReady
Document: the Readiness Challenge
Storm/TsunamiReady
Application Form
Media
Contact:
Greg Romano, NOAA
Weather Service, (301) 713-0622 ext. 164 or Delores
Clark, NOAA Weather Service,
(808) 532-6411
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