San Diego Sheriff's Search and Rescue Web Site
 

TIPS AND INFORMATION

 

TSUNAMI AWARENESS

This knowledge could save your life!

Share this knowledge with your relatives and friends.
It could save their lives!
  • If you are in school and you hear there is a tsunami warning, you should follow the advice of teachers and other school personnel
  • If you are at home and hear there is a tsunami warning, make sure your entire family is aware. Prepare a family emergency plan beforehand so that everyone knows what to do. Your family should evacuate your house if you lie in a tsunami evacuation zone. Move in an orderly, calm, and safe manner to the evacuation site or to any safe place outside your evacuation zone. Follow the advice of local emergency and law enforcement authorities.
  • If you are at the beach or near the ocean and you feel the earth shake, move immediately to higher ground. DO NOT WAIT for a tsunami warning to be announced. Stay away from rivers and streams that lead to the ocean as you would stay away from the beach and ocean if there is a tsunami. A tsunami from a local earthquake could strike some areas before a tsunami warning can be announced.
  • Tsunamis generated in distant locations will generally give people enough time to move to higher ground. For locally generated tsunamis, where you might feel the ground shake, you may only have a few minutes to move to higher ground.
  • High, multi-story, reinforced concrete hotels are located in many low-lying coastal areas. The upper floors can provide a safe place to find refuge should there be a tsunami warning and you cannot move quickly inland to higher ground. Local Civil Defense procedures may, however, not allow this type of evacuation in your area. Homes and small buildings located in low-lying coastal areas are not designed to withstand tsunami impacts. Do not stay in these structures should there be a tsunami warning.
  • Offshore reefs and shallow areas may help break the force of tsunami waves, but large and dangerous waves can still be a threat to coastal residents in these areas. Staying away from all low-lying coastal areas is the safest advice when there is a tsunami warning.