2 March 2016 Southwest of Sumatra Earthquake and Tsunami Event

Tsunami post-event assessments provide insight into the performance of end-to-end early warning systems. The IOC Working Group on Tsunami and Other Hazards Related to Sea-Level Warning and Mitigation Systems (TOWS-WG) has established criteria for when to conduct a post-event assessment. The magnitude 7.8 earthquake that occurred to the southwest of Sumatra, Indonesia on 2 March 2016 met these criteria.

The IOTWMS Secretariat and the Indian Ocean Tsunami Information Centre (IOTIC) conducted an online post-event assessment survey to evaluate the performance of the IOTWMS and to provide a benchmark of the status of the system. The survey addressed six main areas of an end-to-end warning system, including upstream and downstream components, viz. the Tsunami Service Providers (TSPs); national actions; national response; monitoring and modelling; community preparedness; and capacity development requirements.

The post-event assessment report is available here.

Some highlights and findings include:

• All countries that responded to the survey reported having received tsunami threat information from the TSPs.
• Five countries including Australia, India, Indonesia, Seychelles and Sri Lanka issued national tsunami warnings.Community evacuations were conducted in Indonesia as well as Australia’s Cocos Island and Christmas Island.   
• Several countries reported having national standard operating procedures for tsunami. 
• Half of reporting countries held some community preparedness activities prior to the event.
• • Community awareness training was noted as the leading capacity development requirement. 

The decisions of ICG/IOTWMS to pilot the Tsunami Ready programme, finalise the Indian Ocean Tsunami Ready (IOTR) guidelines and conduct ongoing training on development of standard operating procedures as well as Tsunami Evacuation Maps, Plans & Procedures (TEMPP) are expected to enhance the capacity of vulnerable communities to respond appropriately to tsunami threats.