Geoscience Reference
In-Depth Information
to systematically compile, evaluate, and disseminate these efforts at a national scale breeds
the potential for the duplication of efforts and for conlicting messages. There is little
evidence that the NOAA Tsunami Program or the NTHMP are leveraging the education
efforts and expertise of other NOAA entities that also focus on coastal hazards, extreme
events, and warning messaging.
Recommendation:
To increase the effectiveness of tsunami education, the NTHMP should
do the following:
•
Develop consistent education efforts among its members using evidence-based
approaches in the social and behavioral sciences. The goal of this education should
be to teach at-risk people to correctly interpret natural cues and understand oficial
warnings, to motivate them to appropriately prepare for tsunamis evacuations, and
to make that knowledge and motivation a permanent part of the local culture.
•
Tailor tsunami education to local circumstances and the speciic needs and abilities
of at-risk individuals in a community, including tourists.
•
Create and maintain an online repository of education efforts.
•
Develop and implement a program to evaluate the effectiveness of education efforts
and use conclusions from evaluations to make education programs even more
effective.
•
Leverage the hazard education efforts and expertise of other agencies and NOAA
ofices.
COMMUNITY PREPAREDNESS EFFORTS
While tsunami detection and warning messages are the responsibility of the federal
tsunami program, local and state oficials are responsible for preparing communities for
future tsunamis, issuing evacuation orders, and managing evacuations and response efforts.
Community preparedness and emergency management of tsunamis are largely the respon-
sibility of county emergency managers. Other agencies and organizations play roles as well,
including K-12 educators, land-use and building regulatory agencies (e.g., location and type of
construction, inspection of construction, and mitigation/abatement of existing hazards), health
and social services agencies (e.g., post-disaster care and sheltering, care for special-needs
populations), economic-development agencies (e.g., business continuity planning, post-
disaster loans), and multi-department working groups (e.g., post-disaster community recovery
planning). Because of the signiicant breadth and depth of actions that can be implemented
by various actors to prepare communities for tsunamis, the committee restricted its review of
community tsunami preparedness to the NOAA TsunamiReady program. This program is con-
sidered by NOAA to be the primary vehicle for preparing communities for future tsunamis.
The NOAA TsunamiReady program is modeled after the National Weather Service (NWS),
StormReady program and its objective is to help communities reduce the potential for
