Are you ready for the Big One? And no, I don’t mean the earthquake that first comes to mind. The huge tidal wave of water called a tsunami. Those giant walls of water also pose a danger here and can be triggered by earthquakes.
Preparing for tsunamis is no small task but today a third city in San Diego County was recognized by the National Weather Service as being TsunamiReady.
The island city of Coronado joined the City of San Diego and Imperial Beach in meeting strict criteria to win the designation.
Communities must establish a 24-hour center for receiving National Weather Service warnings and activating local warning systems, obtain more than one way to alert the public about those warnings, develop a formal tsunami plan complete with emergency exercises and finally, promote readiness by educating the community.
Today’s recognition ceremony for Coronado comes just weeks before the anniversary of the devastating earthquake and tsunami that hit Japan March 11. You’ll be seeing much more on preparing for tsunamis as that anniversary approaches. The County of San Diego’s Office of Emergency Services (OES) and other agencies are working now to promote Tsunami Awareness Week March 26 – 30. The theme this year is Nature’s Warning and the tag line is Go to high ground, don’t hang around.
While the County does not seek the TsunamiReady designation because it doesn’t own coastal property, OES is active in promoting readiness for any kind of emergency and even produced an award-winning educational video for children called Tsunamis: Know What To Do. You can watch below and get preparedness information for tsunamis and other emergencies on on ReadySanDiego.org.
