Collection of Eyewitness Interviews and Historical Documents on the 1945 Makran Tsunami

A meeting of the IOC UNESCO project on “Communicating the effects of the 1945 Makran tsunami to increase awareness and preparedness of tsunami hazards in the Makran region” was held in Muscat, Oman from 20-24 October 2013.   The meeting reviewed the collection of eyewitness interviews and historical documents on the tsunami that have been obtained during missions to Oman, Pakistan, Iran and India, and formulated plans for further work.  The highest priorities for the new activities are 1) interviews in the Indus Delta near Karachi in Pakistan where it appears the majority of fatalities took place and 2) follow-up interviews in Pasni, Pakistan to constrain the timing of the old port sliding into the sea and to explore whether this slide could account for the late, large “second” wave.  The collection of eyewitness interviews and historical documents as well as summary material for coastal communities and policy makers will be made available on the Indian Ocean Tsunami Information Center website (iotic.ioc-unesco.org) in 2014.

Funding for the project is provided by the ESCAP administered Trust Fund on Tsunami, Disaster and Climate Preparedness in the Indian Ocean and Southeast Asian Countries. The Directorate General of Meteorology and Air Navigation (DGMAN) hosted the meeting.  Participants included seven tsunami researchers from the Makran countries, a researcher from the United States, six observers from the Oman Forecasting Centre at DGMAN and three representatives from the IOC UNESCO Secretariat.

Regional Workshop on Standard Operating Procedures for Tsunami Warning and Emergency Response for Northern and Eastern Indian Ocean Countries

A regional training workshop on tsunami warning and emergency response SOPs for Northern and Eastern Indian Ocean countries was held at the Mercure Hotel in Jakarta, Indonesia, 23-27 September 2013, hosted by the Indonesian Agency for Meteorology, Climatology and Geophysics (BMKG).  The workshop was attended by 32 participants from 9 countries: Bangladesh, Indonesia, Malaysia, Myanmar, Oman, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Thailand and Timor Leste.  The workshop was conducted by a team of 12 trainers from Australia, India, Indonesia, United States, the Asia-Pacific Broadcasting Union and IOC UNESCO. 

The participants represented National Tsunami Warning Centres (NTWCs), Disaster Management Organisations (DMOs) and national media organisations.  The workshop programme included plenary lecture sessions, breakout group work, and site visits to the BMKG tsunami warning centre, the National Disaster Management Centre (BNPB) and a national media organisation (Metro TV). 

The primary objectives of the workshop were: to understand RTSP services and products; to understand the impact of the RTSP products on NTWC SOPs; to identify potential gaps and possible challenges for warning chain SOPs at the national level; to familiarise the electronic media with the RTSP service and develop/adapt SOPs for interfacing with the media; and to prepare for the IOWave14 Exercise, scheduled to take place in late 2014.  

The tabletop exercise on the last day of the workshop provided the participants with an opportunity to put into practice what they had learned.  The NTWC groups reported that they found it difficult to respond to requests for information during the first 30 minutes of the exercise.  On the other hand, the DMOs commented that they wanted more information, more quickly from the NTWCs.  The media groups commented that they wanted to receive more information faster and preferably at the same time or before sources of unofficial information. 

The inclusion of national media organisations in this workshop was particularly enlightening as it exposed several potential gaps in the flow of information between the media and other stakeholders. This highlighted the need for the media to develop SOPs that are harmonised and coherent with the SOPs of other national organisations in the warning chain. 

Funding for the workshop was provided from IOC Special Account funds contributed by the Government of Australia. It is planned to conduct a similar workshop for Western and Northern Indian Ocean countries in Hyderabad, India, in 2014.

JMA's brochure about the Lessons Learned from the Earthquake and Tsunami in 2011

The Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA) published a brochure on its experience through the Great East Japan Earthquake and Tsunami in 2011. It explains JMA's tsunami warning operation on that day, the lessons learned from the earthquake and tsunami as well as how JMA improved its tsunami warning operations based on those lessons. This brochure is firstly targeting people responsible for earthquake/tsunami early warnings/responses but also those who have an interest on what happened on March 11, 2011 to share the infrequent experience and knowledge widely. The brochure is available in English on JMA's website at:

http://www.seisvol.kishou.go.jp/eq/eng/tsunami/LessonsLearned_Improvements_brochure.pdf

Tsunami Enhanced Products for the Pacific Ocean will be available as from October 1st, 2014

The Twenty-fifth Session of the Intergovernmental Coordination Group for the Pacific Ocean Tsunami Warning and Mitigation System (ICG/PTWS-XXV) took place in Vladivostok, Russian Federation, 9-11 September 2013.  The meeting was very well attended, with over 60 participants from 16 countries, one organisation (World Meteorological Organisation) and one business company (SAIC).  The Group requested the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center (PTWC) to replace the current PTWC tsunami products for PTWS as from 1 October 2014 with the endorsed Enhanced Tsunami Products.  The PTWC Enhanced Tsunami Products for the PTWS will no longer advise levels of alert to Member States, but instead provide more detailed forecast levels of tsunami threat for use by the National Tsunami Warning Centers (NTWCs). The Group also accepted China's proposal to build a South China Sea Tsunami Advisory Centre (SCSTAC) to service the approved sub-regional South China Sea Tsunami Warning and Mitigation System within the framework of the ICG/PTWS. China's National Marine Environmental Forecasting Centre (NMFEC) will be responsible for building the centre.