World Tsunami Awareness Day 2017 - India

Set up in response to the Indian Ocean Tsunami of Dec 26, 2004, the Indian Tsunami Early Warning Centre (ITEWC) at Indian National Centre for Ocean Information Services (INCOIS), Hyderabad, India has been providing timely tsunami advisories for India as well as for the Indian Ocean rim countries.

On the occasion of the 2nd World Tsunami Awareness Day, INCOIS is organizing the following activities at INCOIS: 

Open day for school children on 5 and 6 November 2017

 It is regular exercise at INCOIS to arrange a visit for interested school children to all labs towards encouraging and creating curiosity en route for ocean research activities. Accordingly, to build awareness on World Tsunami Awareness Day, INCOIS is arranging “Special Open Day” once again for all school children with special emphasis on tsunami awareness and preparedness. Though it was planned to conduct only on 5th November, due to enormous response received from various schools, it is extended one more day.

Advertisement in media about tsunami awareness day 

A press note will be released to Press Information Bureau of India regarding World Tsunami Awareness Day and activities at INCOIS for the occasion.

Flyer on world tsunami awareness day

A flyer on World Tsunami Awareness Day will be inaugurated with details about its importance and activities of INCOIS for creating tsunami awareness and preparedness.

Tsunami SOP workshop for Disaster Management Officers on 8 November 2017

As the Warning Centre mainly focuses on observing, analyzing and disseminating warnings to the national/state disaster management authorities, disaster management authorities need to build their own SOPs. This workshop helps Disaster Management authorities build their own SOP in lines with warning centre SOP emphasizing actions to be taken upon receipt of bulletins from the warning centre as well as guidance for preparing instructions to public on what to do and where to go if a tsunami warning is issued.

As part of the workshop a table-top exercise will also be conducted. It involves creating a simulated emergency situation in a conference room environment to stimulate the development, training, testing and evaluation of Disaster Plans and SOPs and to elicit constructive discussion from the participants to assess plans, policies, and procedures. The goal of the exercise is to familiarize participants with the stakeholder responsibilities and individual actions and to provide an opportunity for participants to evaluate their SOPs for tsunami warnings prior to the functional exercise on November 24, 2017.

Tsunami Training programme for Pacific Island Countries

At its second edition, the 2017 World Tsunami Awareness Day celebrates efforts to “reduce the number of affected people” when a tsunami strikes. This theme takes inspiration from Target (b) of the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction, which aims at reducing the number of people affected globally by disasters.

As part of global coordination, India agreed to enhance its support in identified potential areas for mutual cooperation regarding strengthening of efforts on disaster risk reduction and preparedness amongst Pacific Island Countries. Accordingly, INCOIS has arranged training programme for 14 Pacific Island Countries on “Early Warning System for Oceanic Disaster and Mitigation with Special Emphasis on Tsunamis” during 20-25 November 2017. This training of the trainers programme is designed to enhance the participants’ abilities to support their organizational preparedness and response oceanic hazards with special emphasis on tsunamis. At the conclusion of the course, a scenario-based group activity challenges participants to identify effective actions that help reduce the impacts of a tsunami hazard in their region.

National Tsunami Mock Exercise for the east coast of India on 24 November 2017

International participants of training programme will witness this mock exercise at community level. INCOIS conducts several SOP Workshops with participation from the National/State Disaster Management Organisations, National Disaster Response Forces (NDRF), Navy, Coast Guards, etc. to enable them to prepare their own SOP in response to advisories issued by Warning Centre. The tsunami mock drill helps to know preparedness level of Disaster Management Officers and other stakeholders and brings out gaps which need to be addressed. On 24 November 2017, preparedness level is tested by conducting the tsunami mock exercise for five states viz. West Bengal, Odisha, Andhra Pradesh, Tamilnadu and Puducherry in east coast of India.

The training participants from 14 Pacific Island Countries witness the tsunami mock exercise. They will be observing end-to-end operations from receipt of bulletins at DMO office from INCOIS till message dissemination to community level and public evacuation to shelters.

Television show (Tamil local channel) on Tsunami Awareness on 5 November 2017

Telecast a show on News 7 Tamil channel about recent technological developments for detection of tsunamis. National Institute of Ocean Technology (NIOT), Chennai is the premier institute of India in ocean operations and tsunami buoy technologies. News 7 TV has covered the activities of tsunami buoys operations and data collection at NIOT. The program will be telecasted on Tsunami awareness day on 5 November 2017.

Main hashtags are #TsunamiDay2017 and #switch2sendai