Tsunami Preparedness Guidebook Resources
Chapter One | Chapter Two | Chapter Three | Chapter Four | Chapter Five | Chapter Six | Chapter Seven |
Chapter One: Learn the Basics of Tsunami Behavior
General Information
- This web resource covers many topics about tsunamis, including basics of tsunami risk.
- This website contains general information about tsunami risk and links to many other sources of information.
- This web page (also published as a flier) describes what tsunamis are, how they behave, and ways to prepare.
Videos, Animations and Photographs of Tsunamis
- This website includes videos and computer simulations of past tsunamis.
- This website links to various animations and photographs of past tsunamis.
University of Southern California Tsunami Research Center
- This website collects amateur videos taken of the 2004 tsunami
2004 Indian Ocean Tsunami
- NOAA has collected an extensive list of links to field surveys, simulations, photographs, technical studies and other information about the December 26, 2004 Indonesian Sumatra earthquake and tsunami.
List of Links to Information about 2004 Tsunami
Personal Stories from Tsunamis
- This booklet, based on personal stories from the 1960 tsunami generated off of the coast of Chile, discusses how to survive a tsunami.
Surviving a Tsunami-Lessons from Chile, Hawaii, and Japan
- The Pacific Tsunami Museum has collected a variety of personal stories about surviving tsunamis.
Chapter Two: Build a Team
Guidance for Disaster Preparedness Advocates
- This guidebook aimed at encouraging earthquake safety advocates contains advice that is also relevant for advocates for tsunami safety.
- This document, written for local government officials in California, describes how to use inundation maps, plan for evacuations, and discusses emergency planning issues for tsunamis.
Promoting Seismic Safety:Guidance for Advocates
Local Planning Guidance on Tsunami Response
Community Tsunami Preparedness Groups
- A group in Padang, Indonesia that organizes tsunami preparedness activities for their community.
Tsunami Alert Community (KOGAMI)
- A group of community members and local, state and federal agencies that work together on tsunami preparedness in three counties of northern California, USA.
Redwood Coast Tsunami Work Group
Chapter Three: Make Hazard and Evacuation Maps
Tsunami Inundation Modeling
- This webpage gives an overview of tsunami modeling and research and includes examples of output and links to technical publications.
NOAA Center for Tsunami Research
Topography Data Resources
- Topography data in digital raster format is available free for most parts of the world in 90 meter resolution (SRTM 3-arc second). This can serve as a basis for mapping, but will not be accurate for detailed local maps.
Examples of evacuation maps from world communities
Northern California, USA Hazard Maps
Chapter Four: Educate the Community About Tsunami Preparedness
Overview of Educating People about Disasters
- This paper presents how to educate people about hazards.
Public Hazards Communication and Education: The State of the Art
Education Materials and Preparedness Information for Schools
- The International Tsunami Information Center has collected links to school curriculums and teacher guides about tsunamis for children of all ages, in English and Spanish languages.
- This web page, from Auckland, New Zealand, describes how to create a comprehensive emergency plan for schools.
- This booklet, aimed at children age 5 to 12, teaches children how their family can prepare for a tsunami.
Links to School Curriculums about Tsunami
Emergency Planning Guidelines for Schools and Early Childhood Centers
How the Smart Family Survived a Tsunami
Education Materials for Other Specific Audiences
- The ITIC has prepared a pamphlet with safety tips for boaters and the fishing industry.
- This guidebook from California Office of Emergency Services describes general emergency planning procedures for health facilities.
Neighborhood Preparedness Teams
- This web page has resources for starting a community emergency response team, based on US experiences.
Community Emergency Response Teams
Tsunami Signs
- The Pacific Tsunami Museum website shows what tsunami signs from around the world look like.
Example Tsunami Signs from Around the World
Folktales About Tsunamis
- The Asian Disaster Reduction Centre has translated the Japanese folktale about surviving a
tsunami into Bengali, Hindi, Tamil, Bahasa, Nepalese and Tagalog. It is available in versions
for adults and children.
Chapter Five: Learn About and Improve Official Tsunami Warning Systems
Overview of Official Warning Systems
- This web resource covers many topics about tsunamis, including describing the international tsunami warning system and discussing needs for newly established warning systems.
- This document provides a brief overview of what makes warning systems effective, including warning system, warning messages, and alerts.
An Introduction to Public Alert and Warning
- A training program is held annually in Hawaii, USA on the history and operations of Pacific Tsunami Warning and Mitigation System.
ITSU Training Program on the International Warning System
International Warning Centers
- The PTWC is responsible for providing tsunami warnings and information about tsunamis to Hawaii and countries of Latin America and Asia bordering the Pacific and, on an interim basis, to the Caribbean and countries bordering the Indian Ocean.
- This center provides tsunami warnings and information to the coastlines of the US (excluding Hawaii), Canada, Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands.
- This center provides tsunami warnings to Japan and provides supplementary information about events in the Northwest Pacific, in close coordination with the PTWC.
- This IOC web page tracks the progress of developing a tsunami warning system for the Indian Ocean.
Pacific Tsunami Warning Center
West Coast and Alaska Tsunami Warning Center
Indian Ocean Tsunami Warning System
Alert Signals
- This guide, developed by the state of Oregon, discusses a variety of notification systems and how they are used in different parts of the world.
- This guidebook, developed for British Columbia, Canada, describes alternatives for mass notification of emergencies.
Tsunami Warning Systems and Procedures: Guidance for Local Officials
A Toolkit for Community Planning
Chapter Six: Prevent Tsunami Damage
Mitigation for Tsunamis
- This guidebook describes how to build communities that are resilient to tsunamis.
Designing for Tsunamis: Seven Principles for Planning and Designing for Tsunami Hazards
Building Codes
- This resource describes the risk of one of the world’s most common and deadly type of high rise buildings to earthquake shaking. It describes how to design and build RC frame buildings properly, and how to retrofit existing structures.
At Risk: The Seismic Performance of Reinforced Concrete Frame Buildings with Masonry Infill Walls
Chapter Seven: Keep Preparedness Going Long-Term
- This guidebook aimed at encouraging earthquake safety advocates contains advice about how to keep disaster preparedness activities ongoing.
Promoting Seismic Safety: Guidance for Advocates
Note: This section is still under development. Please let us know about errors or additional references we should include.