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Before a Tsunami

Tsunami Service Providers

Tsunami Information Centres

Before a Tsunami

  1. Be aware of tsunami facts. This knowledge could save your life!
    Click here to go to Tsunami On The Move Page
  2. Share this knowledge with family and friends. It could save their lives!
    Click here to go to Tsunami Safety Rules Page
  3. Determine if you live, work, play, or transit in a coastal low lying area or tsunami evacuation zone.
  4. Follow the advice of local emergency and law enforcement authorities. Do not return until local authorities say it is safe.
  5. Stay away from bodies of water. If you are at the beach or near the ocean, and you feel the earth shake, move immediately inland to higher ground. Do not wait for a tsunami warning to be issued. Stay away from rivers and streams that lead to the ocean due to strong tsunami wave action and currents.
  6. Take shelter. If you live in a tsunami evacuation zone and hear that there is a tsunami warning, your family should evacuate your house. Walk-in an orderly, calm manner to the evacuation site or to any safe place outside your evacuation zone. If you are in school and you hear there is a tsunami warning, you should follow the advice of teachers and other school officials. If you are unable to quickly move inland then a high, multi-story, reinforced concrete building may provide a safe refuge on the third floor and above.

Resources for Hotels

The booklet, A Guide to Tsunamis for Hotels, summarizes steps that will guide hotels to prepare for tsunami hazards. The guidebook is to be used by hotel management; it is intended to direct them on how to build the hotel’s capacity in evacuation planning for a tsunami emergency.

The guidebook outlines the necessary steps to be undertaken, such as preliminary preparedness assessment using a checklist from the “Tsunami Ready” Toolbox, understanding the warnings (natural warning and official warning), deciding on an evacuation strategy, consideration for a hotel to be an evacuation area and the standard operating procedures for a tsunami emergency.

This guidebook explains the steps in building tsunami preparedness, however, to successfully develop the plans and procedures the hotel has to do all the groundwork. It is recommended to work through a participatory approach with all hotel stakeholders (staff and management) to simultaneously build in capacity and ownership.

At the same time, the hotel should also coordinate with the local disaster management office and/or other local authorities and stakeholders working on disaster and emergency management (for example Red Cross) to know more about the tsunami risks in the area as well as other local disaster management issues. (The above was modified from the Executive Summary)

Link to Hotel Resources