CARIBE WAVE 20 Exercise

The annual tsunami exercise for the Caribbean and Adjacent Regions, CARIBE WAVE, has been improving and validating tsunami readiness since 2011. The 2020 exercise took place on March 19, 2020 under very different circumstances than previous years. After months of regional and national preparation and planning, given the COVID-19 pandemic, the UNESCO IOC Intergovernmental Coordination Group for Tsunami and Other Coastal Hazards for the Caribbean and Adjacent Regions (ICG/CARIBE EWS) agreed to only test the communication lines at a regional level. It was left up to the Member States and Territories to decide if any additional activity would be carried out and whether to use the simulated messages for one of two tsunami scenarios: Jamaica and Portugal.

Despite the sudden change in scope of the exercise, CARIBE WAVE 20 was held successfully. The Regional Tsunami Service Provider, the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center, issued a “Dummy” message at 14h00 UTC to all officially designated Tsunami Warning Focal Points (TWFP) and National Tsunami Warning Centers (NTWC). Many methods of communication were used to disseminate the message: the World Meteorological Organization Warning Information System (Global Telecommunication Systems), the Aeronautical Information Replacement System (AISR), NOAA Weather Wire, AWIPS, Fax, Email and Social Media. According to feedback as well as social media and web posts, the dummy message was successfully received, validating the communication platforms.

The NOAA Caribbean Tsunami Warning Program (CTWP), the exercise coordinator on behalf of CARIBE EWS, used virtual meeting tools to monitor CARIBE WAVE 20, including the availability of sea level data. If a tsunami had indeed occurred on this day 33 of the 45 regional sea level stations that would have been expected to record the tsunami were operational. For more information on the exercise, the Jamaica and Portugal scenarios and reports please visit https://caribewave.info.

*Contributed by Stephanie Soto and Christa von Hillebrandt-Andrade, NOAA Caribbean Tsunami Warning Program, and Elizabeth A. Vanacore, CARIBE WAVE Task Team Chair, Puerto Rico Seismic Network, Dept. of Geology, UPR